Ripple Effect
by Pandora of Ithilien
Summary: One difference can change everything. What if Jenny Lewis wasn't the only new hire at the ARC? Series 2 AU.
1. Stone in the Water

Disclaimer: Ashley's mine, other than that, no, this stuff doesn't belong to me.

Author's Note: OK, while this story takes place primarily in the Primeval-verse, Ashley's backstory is based off of the shows Doctor Who and Torchwood (mostly the two-part finale of DW series/season 2) so it would be best if you had a little background on that as well. If you don't watch it, there's a summary on Wikipedia and I'll be explaining some bits through the story.

**Act One: What Happens at the ARC...**

_**Chapter 1 - Stone In the Water:**_ Ashley Stafford sighed as she waited for her turn with Joseph Mitchell, the man who was reassigning the few survivors of Canary Wharf. Next to her, Dr. Rajesh Singh looked even more upset than she did.

"What do you think they'll do with us?" the Indian man asked his companion grimly.

"No idea, Singh," Ashley replied tiredly. She looked around, and realised someone was missing. "Hey, has anyone seen Ianto?" The Welshman had been one of her closest friends at Torchwood - well, him and his girlfriend, Lisa Hallett. She hadn't seen him since Canary Wharf, three months ago, but she'd expected him to be here for reassignment.

"No," Jane Abbott said, shaking her head. "I think he ran off. Lisa didn't make it; he probably just had to get away."

"Christ," Ashley said, toying with the end of her long black braid. "And then, of course, Micah Trevaine's gone swanning off to the States. He's going to try and get his girlfriend back."

"The one he dumped?" Singh said, frowning.

"Yep."

"I hope she gives him hell," said Jane disapprovingly.

"I met Paula; she used to be an outside consultant for Torchwood. Trust me, she will," Ashley chuckled. She liked Micah, but seeing as he'd been the idiot who'd ended a relationship because he was afraid of being in love, she hoped he got hassled a lot before he got taken back.

"Wait, you're talking about Ravenwood, aren't you?" said Singh.

"Yeah."

"He'll be lucky if she doesn't kill him."

Just then the door opened and Will Carey walked out of Mitchell's office. "Glasgow," he said with a scowl. "Means I'm stuck with bloody Archie MacDougal. Kill me now, why don't you?"

They all made sympathetic noises - the head of Torchwood 2 was known for being a very strange person - and then Will stalked out, calling back over his shoulder, "Singh, he wants you next!"

Singh found himself hired to do R&D for UNIT, while Jane would be sent to Belfast, where they were starting a new branch of the program. Ashley was last to go in, something she was hardly surprised about. Mitchell had never liked her.

* * *

Sir Joseph Mitchell looked up as the woman entered his office. Stafford looked like someone hired on looks alone, tall and pretty, with long black hair and green eyes. Though a smart man would see the tight-braided hair and the sharpness of those eyes and know Stafford was no pretty toy. And Mitchell was a smart man.

He didn't like Stafford, and he never had. The woman was an astrophysicist, and she was a genius, or damn near one, according to her files, but she was a little too opinionated for his tastes. He was rather glad to be washing his hands of her.

The chance had been surprising. The Prime Minister had called him in to have a talk about the 27 survivors of Canary Wharf. Even they were a disaster. 16 had chosen to be retconned, which meant 16 good people lost. Five of the remaining 11 were military, and had been reassigned by military superiors. Two of the civilians had run off, Jones and Trevaine. Jones had said he was aiming for Torchwood Three, but as Harkness didn't like Torchwood One, he felt he had to get in on his own merits. Trevaine... well, the man was unusual in more ways than one, and Mitchell rather thought they were well shot of him.

He'd expected to be hauled over the coals, and he had been. But then the Minister had told him to listen to some facts, about yet another secret program, one that researched something called anomalies. These anomalies were rips in space-time that apparently allowed prehistoric creatures access to the present. "I want one of the Torchwood leftovers at the Anomaly Research Centre," the Minister had said flatly. "The people there are good, but there's already been one incident of a creature from the future. I don't know what else might use these anomalies, and if an alien does, I want someone on their field team who knows how to react to alien threats rather than animal ones."

So he'd chosen Stafford. Singh and Abbott weren't field-trained, while Carey didn't have enough of an academic bent to fit the bill. Trevaine might have done... but Stafford was better. "Hello, Dr. Stafford. Have a seat."

She sat, and then said without preamble, "So, where am I headed, Mitchell?"

His temper flared at her disrespect, but he didn't give her the satisfaction of seeing that. "Oh, I have something very interesting for you. Tell me, have you ever heard of the Anomaly Research Center?"

One dark eyebrow lifted. "No. Should I have?"

"No, not until now. It's a program being run by the Home Office. It investigates phenomena known as anomalies."

"Hence the name."

"Yes. Don't interrupt. Now, these anomalies. They're rips in space-time, rather like the Cardiff Rift. However, the trouble with these things is that they allow prehistoric animals access to our time. I'm sending you to become part of the ARC field team."

Silence. Mitchell realized this was the first time he'd seen Stafford struck speechless, and was amused by it. Then she regained her ability to speak.

"Hang on. You do realize I know next to nothing about prehistory, right? What makes you think I'd be any good at this?"

"The fact that Yvonne Hartman always felt you were very adaptable. You can handle yourself in the field, what with your knowledge of weaponry, and I'm sure someone of your intelligence can handle some research. After all, you didn't know about aliens before Torchwood, did you?"

"That is hardly the point."

"This decision is final. You get this assignment or you get retconned. Choose."

A choice that was no choice at all, Ashley thought furiously. She'd thought about retcon when it was first offered, and understood why so many of her former colleagues had chosen it. To them, amnesia was better than waking up screaming from the nightmares of that day. But Ashley knew herself well, and she knew that having a blank like that in her mind would torment her far more.

"Fine. I'll take the job."

* * *

James Lester had a headache. First future predators and Helen Cutter. Then Nick Cutter returns babbling about some woman named Claudia Brown who supposedly worked with them. Now, not only was the field team dealing with raptors in a shopping mall, but Leek was telling him that the Prime Minister had assigned two new people to the team. One was a PR wizard, and Lester was willing to admit that he wasn't too annoyed about that. It meant someone else would have to deal with the press now. The other was some woman from a top-secret special-ops group. He didn't like that, not one bit.

"I don't like having someone forced on me" he said to no one in particular.

"I'm sure it was for the best, sir," Oliver Leek said. "Incidentally, the information came in on the other new man. Turns out it's another woman. A Jennifer Lewis."

"Wonderful. Well, give me the file." Headache? Make that a migraine.


	2. Impressions

_**Chapter 2 - Impressions:**_ Ashley sighed as she braided her damp hair tightly back. Today was her first day at the ARC, and she intended to make a good impression, even if she wasn't thrilled by her assignment. And she wasn't. She didn't like the idea of prehistoric animals, she knew next to nothing about them.

She'd known less than nothing about aliens once, just as Mitchell had said. But this was different. Or was it? What was she so reluctant to do? Face a different sort of threat, or face the possibility of coming to care for new teammates, who could die in the blink of an eye, just like before?

"Good question," she said to the reflection in the bathroom mirror. She shook her head and walked out of the bathroom, grabbing her keys on the coffee table and leaving her flat.

She got on her motorcycle - screw propriety; it was a nice day and she needed the rush of it - and sped off to the ARC. She'd seen the building before, but had never really given a damn about it. Strange how things could change. But then, she knew that already.

Climbing off, she walked to the door. She was stopped by an armed guard who let her pass once she flashed her new ID at him. Once she went in, she realised she had no clue where she was going.

"Are you lost?" a voice asked from behind her. She looked around to see a woman with dark brown hair firmly twisted back into a bun. She wore a dressy suit and ridiculously high heels, with dramatic make-up. "You must be the other new member. I'm Jennifer Lewis, Jenny." She offered a hand.

"Ashley Stafford," Ashley said, shaking hands with Jenny. "You're new too then?"

"Yes. I've only been here two weeks. Did they tell you what you were getting into?"

"Yeah."

"And you believed them?"

"I've heard crazy stuff before. I took it in stride." Ashley shrugged, smiling slightly at the disbelieving expression on the other woman's face.

"I wish I'd believed it right off," Jenny said ruefully as she strode down a hallway. Ashley followed, assuming that the other woman at least had a basic idea of where to go. "It might not have been such a shock. I thought they were joking." She shook her head. "You'll do better than I did."

"Hmm. If you don't mind me asking, don't those shoes cause a problem? I mean, in the field?"

"They may, but the field isn't my job. It is yours though. The combat boots should be good." Brown eyes flicked to the black combat boots Ashley wore.

"That's the point," Ashley grinned. "So, what do you do?"

"Public Relations. And you?"

"Astrophysics. I think they want me investigating the cause of these anomalies."

Nick looked up from the coffee he was pouring at the sound of two women talking. He looked around and saw Jenny, feeling the already-familiar jolt of pain. It hurt to see her, the woman who looked like Claudia but wasn't her. So he looked at the other woman, a complete stranger. That was a relief.

"Ah. Dr. Stafford, I presume?" Lester said, looking the newcomer up and down.

"Yeah. And you are?"

"James Lester, I'm in charge of this project." He glanced around, noting the other members of the team. "That's Professor Nick Cutter, Stephen Hart and Oliver Leek," he said, gesturing to each in turn. "And I see you've met Ms. Lewis."

"Right. Nice to meet you all." Stafford smiled generally at them, looking a bit uncertain. "So, Mr. Lester, what exactly are you going to have me doing? My... The man who gave me this assignment wasn't very specific."

"Ah. Leek?"

_The man summons his assistant like a puppy_, Ashley noted with disgust. _And he runs like the pup to the whistle. Which came first? _

"Come on, Dr. Stafford," Leek said, gesturing for her to follow him. Ashley followed silently. He took her to a small lab and said, "It was suggested that you would do best working on your own, so you were given a lab. We want you working on the anomalies themselves, what triggers them, how we can control them and hopefully eventually stop them."

"Hmm. Isn't that a bit premature?"

"Perhaps. Did you see the equipment in the main room?"

"What, the mass of screens? Yeah."

"It's an anomaly detector. We're testing it today," he explained. Then he left.

Ashley rolled her eyes and followed him. She really didn't like this Leek person.

The detector was apparently the brainchild of a Connor Temple. She met him and a woman, Abby Maitland, when they rushed in, apparently late. The detector was loud. Very, _very_ loud. Apparently Connor also had a handheld version, which made Ashley wonder why the main one had to be so bloody big. Though she thought he didn't deserve the sarcastic comments Jenny and Leek kept making.

"If this is supposed to pick up all anomalies, why am I getting word of another creature attack?" Leek asked, a mocking note to his voice.

The team sprung into action - and in the rush, forgot she was supposed to go with them. She intended to follow on her bike, but they left too quickly for her to see which way they'd gone. "Damn!"

"Did they forget about you?" asked a female voice from behind her. Jenny.

"Seems so."

"Well, come with me then."

"Thanks."

The car ride was silent at first, before Jenny said, "So, what do you make of all this?"

"Connor's easily excitable, Leek is an asshole, and you and Cutter don't get on," Ashley said.

"Not what I meant, but right on two counts. Leek isn't that bad."

"Could have fooled me."

"Hmm."

They got to the site - an amusement park, soon after. Jenny and Cutter caught up to the park manager, while she was left with Abby, Connor, and Stephen. "Do you have a first name?" Connor asked.

"Yeah. Ashley."

"Right. Better than Dr. Stafford. Friendlier."

Things got a bit messy after that. The park manager wouldn't evacuate, cutting down the area they could use to search. She was with Stephen, and they thought they'd found something, which led to Cutter and Abby going off to find it. In the meantime, Connor thought he saw something and wound up shooting the park manager, who was in a lion costume. Ashley couldn't help but wonder how anything got done with the seeming lack of discipline.

_Yvonne would have a field day getting this lot into shape_, she thought, actually missing the blonde bitch she'd previously worked for.

Cutter and Jenny went off again, this time to talk to a former lion breeder in the area, Mr. West. Ashley went to see Connor. "You OK?"

"No, I feel like an idiot." The younger man shoved his hands into his pockets.

"You were jumpy, it's understandable. You just need to work at it."

"But I'm only allowed to 'work at it' in an emergency. And I always screw up then."

"Does the ARC have a firing range?"

"Uh, don't think so."

"Hmm. Well, I know one just out of the City; maybe I could take you sometime.

"They'll flip."

"Let 'em." If he was in the field, he couldn't depend on the protection of others, Ashley thought. If they hadn't worked that bit out yet, she would just have to cover it for them.

That night, they went looking for the animal. Cutter handed out infrared goggles and tranquilizer guns. He didn't give a gun to Ashley right off.

"Do you know how to use one?" he asked.

"Yes, I know how to use one, isn't that in my file?"

"Didn't read it. Here." He gave her the gun.

"Thank you." She went with Abby and Connor, tuning out their discussion. Instead her mind was focused on the creature. At least at first. But with the calm continuing, her mind began wandering. What exactly was she going to do here? In the lab, maybe there was something. Thanks to Torchwood, she knew a lot more about what could truly be done with physics than most scientists in the world. She just felt out of her depth here.

Abby's phone rang. She answered it, and a minute later was looking at Connor and Ashley with a grim expression. "Someone else has been attacked."

They got pictures from a Train Spotter - once Jenny bribed him with the opportunity to see some fancy train or other. And flirted with him, something that Cutter seemed half amused and half disgusted by.

"You're a real piece of work, aren't you?" he asked her once the still-befuddled guy had left.

"Thank you. I'll take that as a compliment."

_I don't think he meant it that way_, Ashley mused. Then she caught sight of the picture Connor had brought up on the screen. She'd never been big on this stuff, but her brother had. Isn't that a - ?

"It's a Smilodon, sabre-toothed cat." Cutter said.

_Yeah, that. Lovely. _

The next day they set up traps for the animal, and Abby used some construction equipment to dig up the area, looking for bodies. They found one - ten feet deep, which was way too deep for any animal. Which meant someone knew about the Smilodon. Not good, very not good.

It turned out that Jenny had decided to use the lion guy, West, in a cover story according to Leek. He'd come to see them that morning, much to Ashley's irritation. So Stephen, Abby, Ashley, and Connor headed over to find out if West really was involved. Cutter said he'd be fine on his own, so he stayed. They found Jenny just as West was about to shoot her.

"You should have shot him, this is my best coat!" Jenny grumbled at one point.

"Why wear it here then?" Ashley asked mildly. Jenny glared at her. Just then Stephen got a call from Cutter. The assistant park manager Stephen had befriended, Valerie, was the one who'd been hiding the Smilodon - apparently from infancy.

"Which explains why your detector didn't go off," Ashley told Connor as they ran for the truck. "It's been here for years." Connor grinned.

"I knew I had it right," he said triumphantly.

They got back to the park as fast as they could. Ashley was sure they broke some speed limits. They found Cutter with Valerie and the Smilodon - just as it attacked the woman. Ashley watched, feeling only a mild numbness. The others all were clearly horrified, even if they hid it well. Why was she only numb?

Had to be post-traumatic stress disorder. She'd already had the flashbacks, a few of them, and a whole lot of nightmares and been to see the official Torchwood-paid shrink over them. That was only because they all had to in order to get reassigned. But the man had never mentioned being numb to violence. She'd have to think about that one later.

The cat died on the way back to the ARC, which seemed weird. They cremated it right off, which seemed stupid. It all struck her as odd, enough to make her a little edgy. She told herself she was being paranoid.

"So, how was your first day?" Jenny asked when they ran into each other on Ashley's way out.

"First _two_ days, and could have been worse, but then, could have been better. You think your coat will survive?"

"It should," Jenny said, smiling a little. "Well, see you tomorrow."

"You too." Ashley left, getting on her bike and speeding off.

At a stop light, she saw someone in a parked car who looked like Leek. He was talking to a woman. Ashley rolled her eyes at her own paranoia as it flared again. She really needed to stop seeing conspiracies everywhere. Even if her first two jobs pretty much confirmed the suspicions of conspiracy theorists everywhere.

That thought made her smile as the light changed and she sped off again. She was shaken by what she'd seen - more by her lack of reaction than anything - and yet she was happier than she'd been when she showed up at the ARC the day before. Maybe she didn't know much about prehistory, but she had a feeling she'd pick it up. Especially if she started doing that research. And really, it was just Torchwood with a different focus. That she could handle very easily. Her first impression of the anomaly project was, overall, pretty good.


	3. Waterlogged

Disclaimer: Not mine, except Ashley. Also, thanks to Jen, my beta over at the ARC.

_**Chapter 3 - Waterlogged:**_ Things were pretty quiet for a few days after that. Ashley had missed some minor anomaly activity - Cutter and Connor had taken care of it, and Connor was feeling vindicated because his detector worked after all. He was also pestering her as to when they could take that trip out to the firing range. She told him Saturday, barring an emergency, and he agreed.

Ashley shook her head as Connor left her lab. He was starting to grow on her. She'd always had a soft spot for geeks. Probably because she'd been one herself, more or less. _And still am, considering my line of work_, she thought.

She looked down at the papers she'd been studying - readouts of the magnetic fields around the latest anomalies. She was looking for any discernible pattern beyond the obvious one that the field waned as the anomaly did. The note about the disruption of radio waves - which was part of what went into Connor's detector - was interesting, but she wasn't yet sure if or how she could use it.

"You know, if you don't stop for a break every now and then, you'll snap," a voice said cheerfully. Ashley glanced around. The speaker was Henry Johnson, one of the other scientists.

"I'm used to it," she said, smiling slightly. "Did you need something?"

"No, it's... well, we're all just curious."

"About?"

"The field team. See, we - the science team, that is - are always here. We never do anything outside of the lab. It's fascinating, what we do, but sometimes we get bored. And so we were wondering what working with them's like, especially with Temple being trigger-happy, Cutter being crazy, and - "

"Wait, what? Cutter's not crazy." Connor wasn't exactly trigger-happy, either, but that comment was at least partly true.

"You weren't here when he came back through an anomaly a few weeks back. One of the SAS guys told us all about it. He was rambling about the world having gone wrong and some woman who doesn't exist. And then, he said Ms. Lewis was someone else. Kept calling her some other name. Claire. Or, no, actually I think it was Claudia. See, he's gone daft."

"How could Jenny be someone else?" Ashley asked.

"Who knows? You don't think he could be right, do you?"

"No, of course not. It's just odd, don't you think?" But she wasn't quite as dismissive as Johnson. She didn't think Cutter was crazy. Haunted, yes, definitely that. She'd assumed it was because of his wife - she'd heard that story already - but maybe it wasn't just that.

She didn't like this train of thought. _Not here, not again_, she thought, trying to ignore the sudden flare of panic. But if alternate realities were in play again, she wasn't sure she could ignore her reaction. Playing with realities could be fatal. Torchwood had learned that the hard way.

This situation was different, if it even involved alternate realities. But it had enough similarities to make her very, very nervous. However, thinking like a scientist again, she noted that the possibility that alternate realities may be tangled up in the anomaly problem added a new dimension to the situation.

She went back to studying the papers. Henry left in a huff, not liking being ignored in favour of a few papers. He would tell the rest of his gossip circle that Stafford wasn't of any use for gossip. She was already every bit as close-mouthed as the rest of the team, and she'd only been on one mission.

* * *

When they got word of another anomaly via Connor's detector, Ashley, Cutter, Stephen, and Jenny headed off to investigate. Cutter kept trying to call Connor, but couldn't get him. He finally called Abby, who did answer, and told her to get herself and Connor over to meet them.

The four of them arrived at a basketball court, or rather in the clearing next to it. The anomaly hadn't been there; it had been somewhere in a nearby canal but had closed before an exact location had been determined. But a teenage boy, Lucien Hope, had disappeared from here, supposedly dragged through a manhole in the field.

After some discussion as to what might have caused the incident, Cutter asked Jenny to organise a search of the canal for Lucien - or whatever had most likely killed him. Then he and Stephen jumped into the hole.

"Are you two insane?" Ashley asked, not really expecting an answer. She didn't get one, and she sighed, shaking her head. Then she jumped in after them. _Hey, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. _

There was no water left in the tunnels, though it was damp. She followed the two men until they stopped, listening to a strange noise. "Sounds like whalesong," she commented. "But whales wouldn't snatch someone, right?"

They didn't know what it was and they'd hit a dead end, so they couldn't investigate. They headed back up and went to the canal, where they met Abby, Connor, and Jenny. Two boats were ready for them to go out and search.

"Jenny, you go in the boat with Abby and Connor. Ashley, come with Stephen and me," Cutter said briskly. Both women did as he said, and then they were off.

They stayed in the boats for hours, but saw nothing. Ashley was leaning over the side of her boat, shining a torch into the water in the hopes of finding something, when she glanced over at the other boat. There seemed to be some shifting of positions. Abby had been doing what Ashley was, but Connor seemed to want to take over. Jenny, who Ashley guessed was probably fed up with the squabbling that undoubtedly accompanied Connor and Abby's movements, pushed them both aside and took Abby's place. A mistake, as it turned out, because the boat hit something a moment later and Jenny was thrown from the boat

"Heads up," Ashley said, pointing. Cutter and Stephen glanced around.

"That's tough luck," Stephen commented. Then he frowned as he watched Jenny thrashing about. "Can she swim?"

"I think that's a minor problem," said Ashley, pointing again. This time she was indicating something in the water behind Jenny.

"We'd better get over there," said Cutter.

Cutter managed to pull Jenny into their boat before she got eaten by the whatever-it-was in the water. As it turned out, the creature was some kind of future shark, as they learned after shots from Stephen and the SAS men killed it. Ashley cursed herself for forgetting her gun. Stupid mistake, one she couldn't afford.

* * *

Later, back at the ARC, Ashley joined Jenny just as Cutter was leaving her. "You're not going to do the autopsy or whatever it is they're doing?" Jenny asked.

"You're kidding, right?" said Ashley. "I'm a physicist, not a biologist. Or anything to do with animals at all, actually. I'd be worse than useless. How are you doing?"

"Fine."

"Hmm. So, can you swim?"

"Yes, but have you ever tried to swim with one of those things on?""

"No."

"Then don't comment on my inability to swim in one."

Ashley grinned and went to go check the progress of the others.

* * *

Lucien hadn't been eaten by the shark after all, it turned out. His basketball and one sneaker had been found in the animal's stomach, but no human remains. Stephen, Cutter, and Abby all said sharks didn't digest food that fast, and Ashley took their word for it. As she'd said to Jenny, animals weren't really her thing.

The next morning, they were under orders from Lester to search the canal more thoroughly, but Cutter, acting on some hunch, went off in another direction.

"Does he do this sort of thing often?" Ashley asked a frustrated Stephen.

"All the time," he said, shaking his head. "And I'll have to cover for him."

"Unless he's right."

"Which he probably will be. It's annoying, but it happens a lot."

But Cutter hadn't been right. Or maybe he'd been too right. Ashley didn't get the whole story, but Cutter had apparently run into a suspicious man, made all the more suspicious because he was familiar. Something about being a cleaner at a shopping mall that had been infested with raptors. The man had knocked Cutter out briefly, after which Cutter took Abby and Connor to investigate something. He didn't call for backup, a fatal mistake. Something - they had no clue what - took Abby.

After hours of searching, Cutter and Stephen called it off. There wasn't any chance Abby was still alive. Ashley was hardly surprised when Connor fell apart. She knew how he felt. She hated giving up; she didn't know Abby that well, but it just seemed wrong. More, she'd been in his shoes recently, though she couldn't say as much. Officially, Canary Wharf had been "dissolved due to poor management".

Lester showed up with Jenny and Leek in tow. He had Jenny take a distraught Connor home before firing Cutter and putting Stephen in charge. Stephen continued the search for the creatures in the canal. Cutter tried to convince him that he was looking in the wrong place, but with no success.

Stephen had told Lester he needed a remote submarine to search properly, and he got one. It didn't seem to be helping much, though, as even with the sub's camera, they saw nothing. When they did finally get a picture, it was quick and dramatic.

The creature took up most of the screen, but beyond it... Was that Cutter? She thought he'd gone home. It wasn't really a surprise, though. Stephen wasted no time. He grabbed a pistol and a machine gun before diving into the water.

"Oh brother," Ashley muttered, before checking that her own gun was secure in its concealed holster and diving after him.

They got there just in time to find Cutter and a boy - Lucien, Ashley assumed - surrounded by the strange animals. Stephen made short work of them with the machine gun, Ashley's own handgun helping somewhat. Cutter told them that Connor had been with him, and that Abby had been held captive here with Lucien. Connor had gone running off in search of Abby, and Cutter headed in that direction, Stephen and Ashley hot on his heels.

Ashley paused briefly, remembering Lucien. "Stay here, yeah?" she told the clearly shaken teen.

"Oh yeah," Lucien said, nodding. Ashley grinned before taking off again.

They didn't find Connor or Abby, but they did find an anomaly, and they realised that their missing team members were probably on the other side. Cutter and Stephen went through without hesitation. Ashley followed a bit more uncertainly - she'd never been through one before, and she was pretty sure they both had.

As it turned out, their timing was spot on. They found Connor hanging off a cliff edge, trying desperately to hold on to Abby's hand. Cutter hurried over to help, and together the two men got Abby over the edge to safety - relatively speaking, as none of them were exactly safe in this environment. Ashley and Stephen, meanwhile, were shooting at the giant creature that had been after Abby, joined by Cutter once he'd left Abby and Connor. There was no way for it to survive the onslaught of bullets.

Back in the present, Lucien was loaded into an ambulance, and the bureaucrats were back. Jenny was talking to Lucien, while Lester spoke to Cutter and Stephen, Leek at his side like a shadow. Lester commented that the next time he sacked Cutter, he'd appreciate it if the professor could at least pretend to stay sacked for at least ten minutes. However, he also admitted that it was a good thing he hadn't, because if it had been left up to Stephen, they'd still be looking in the wrong spot. Ashley found that unfair. Lester's plan to seal off the anomaly with concrete was a good one, though.

There were reports to fill out, so Ashley, Stephen, and Cutter went back to the ARC. By the time all was said and done, night had fallen. Ashley didn't mind that, not really. It wasn't like she had any plans anyway.

But things changed when she got back to find Ianto Jones sitting on her doorstep.


	4. Night Shift

Disclaimer: Not mine, except for Ashley. Thanks again to my beta, Jen.

_**Chapter 4 - Night Shift:**_ "Ianto, what are you doing here?" Ashley asked, walking over to him.

Ianto shrugged, looking ill-at-ease.

"I got some time off, and I thought I'd come by. Look, Ash, I'm sorry I took so long to get in touch. It was just, I couldn't talk to you, or anyone else. I felt too guilty."

"Guilty? Why?"

Ianto's answer made no sense. "I thought she was still in there. I thought I could save her," he muttered, sounding broken.

"Ianto, what the hell are you talking about?" Ashley said, getting worried now. "Let's go inside, yeah? We can talk there."

They went inside, and she pushed him down onto the couch before taking a seat in the armchair. "OK, now what were you talking about?"

Ianto wouldn't look at her. "It was Lisa. She didn't die at Canary Wharf."

"What?"

"She was... partially converted. I thought there was still human in her! There was in Yvonne, remember? She turned on the Cybermen? So I thought there was still some in Lisa, and maybe there was at first, but then..."

"Ianto, are you saying you kept her hidden somewhere?"

"In the Hub, in the basement. I had her on a life-support system, she told me how to set it up. It's why I went to the Hub in the first place, it was the only place I could go where I'd have a chance to save her. But it didn't work."

_No, it wouldn't. _"What happened?"

"I contacted this man, Dr. Tanizaki. Do you remember him?"

"He's a Japanese cybernetics expert. Yeah."

"He said he could help me save her, but it didn't work. He got her breathing without the machine, but that somehow also increased the Cyberman influence. She tried to convert him and it killed him. She nearly killed all of us, and she did kill poor Annie."

"Annie?"

"She was a pizza girl. Lisa's body was destroyed, by the pterodactyl that I chased to Cardiff." He laughed bitterly. "Figures. I used Myfanwy to get into the Hub, for Lisa, and she killed Lisa."

"But then this Annie...?"

"Remember how the Cybermen transplant brains?" Ianto said dully. "Well, that's what she did to Annie. I'd called her earlier, ordering pizza for Lisa and I. She still ate human food, even though... We'd left the Hub, to regroup, and she must have come in through the other entrance, the one in the tourist centre. I never saw the footage, I couldn't, but Lisa must have still been mobile enough after Myfanwy's attack to take Annie and switch..."

Ashley's heart actually stopped for a moment. "Oh God," she whispered.

"Yeah. Jack... he wanted me to kill Lisa, or he'd kill us both, he said. I couldn't do it, though. Not even at the end, after she'd done that. I had her at gunpoint, but I know I couldn't have done it. They did it for me, all of them, a bloody firing squad. I'm surprised Jack _didn't_ kill me, or at least retcon me."

"He must have known you never meant that to happen. Ianto, I know you didn't. You just wanted to save Lisa."

"But I could have gotten them all killed. And then... And then, Lisa would have started a new Cyberman empire. She was talking about it. I would have destroyed the world, Ashley!"

She couldn't exactly deny that one. "But it didn't happen," was all she could say.

"But it could have! God, what was I thinking?"

"You weren't. You were feeling, and that's not necessarily wrong." It wasn't necessarily right, either, particularly not under these sorts of circumstances, but she doubted he needed to hear that. He already knew that all too well, and she could see that it was tormenting him.

There didn't seem to be anything to say, really. So they both sat there, silent, thinking their own dark thoughts. Ianto was thinking about Lisa, about the disaster he'd caused, and Ashley was thinking, again, about Canary Wharf. And about ghosts, how they lingered despite all attempts to dispel them. It was enough to drive someone mad.

* * *

Two a.m., she saw when her eyes snapped open in the dark and she looked over at the clock display on her nightstand. She wasn't really surprised, she mused as she got up, shaking off the last vestiges of the nightmare. It was hardly unusual for her to wake up around now.

Heading to the kitchen, she heard footsteps from the guest room. "Ianto?" she called.

Ianto opened the door. "Did I wake you?" he asked, looking concerned.

"No, I was up. I think I'll be up a while. Want some hot chocolate?"

Ianto gave her an odd look and she grinned.

"It works for nightmares, with no risk of dependency."

He smiled, a little ruefully. "All right then."

* * *

In the kitchen, she got out two mugs, a saucepan, milk, sugar, and chocolate shavings.

"That's unusual," Ianto commented. "I didn't know anyone did homemade hot chocolate anymore."

"My grandmother taught me," Ashley said absently as she turned on the heat.

Nothing more was said until they had steaming mugs in front of them. Then Ianto broke the silence. "Do you do this often?"

"Most nights. I take it you still pace?"

"Yeah. So you didn't tell the psychiatrist they made us see about the nightmares then?"

"No, I did. And then I threw out the prescription he gave me for sleeping tablets."

"You prefer insomnia?"

"It's mild, and I never was good at sleeping through the night. And don't be hypocritical, as you seem to have done the same."

"I take them, just not every night. I don't want to get addicted."

"Almost makes you envy the retconned ones. Almost."

"I'd've done it, if not for..." Ianto stopped, swallowing the lump in his throat with a sip of chocolate. "Well, I had a reason at the time. Why didn't you do it?"

Ashley shrugged. "I took a knock once, when I was 12. Fell off my bicycle. When I woke up, I had amnesia. Only lasted two weeks, but I didn't want to deal with that again. Besides... There was some good stuff, wasn't there?"

Ianto smiled, almost in spite of himself. "Well, there was that odd bit of technology, the daydream one. Remember? It conjured up visuals of people's daydreams?"

"Yeah. Didn't Tom Howard get in trouble for that one?" She seemed to recall Yvonne screaming at him for a good hour. The memory made her laugh. Ianto, obviously remembering the same scene she was, laughed as well.

"Well, seeing as his daydream was X-rated and involved Yvonne, was it such a surprise?" he observed when their laughter had subsided.

"No, I guess not. He did get into a lot of trouble."

He'd been retconned. Ashley wondered if the drug would fix that tendency.

"He was one of your interns, wasn't he?" Ianto asked, frowning.

"Yeah. He got stuck in a different spatial dimension once. That was interesting."

The man had been gone for three weeks, and none of them had known what had happened. Interesting was an understatement.

"Oh yes, that whole eleven dimensions of string theory. Wasn't that your special project?"

"Proving they exist and exploring them when possible. Though we never got to the second, except for Howard's little adventure. Maybe I can play with that on my own."

"Just be careful."

"Aren't I always?"

"No."

"Very true," Ashley admitted with a laugh. "I'll try my best if you will, yeah?"

"Oh, I'm just the 'Torchwood Teaboy' these days, as Owen says. Don't worry about me."

"That's a disgrace. You're more than a glorified secretary."

"I like what I do. I never needed field work the way you do."

"I don't _need_ - "

"Yes, you do. You liked the dimension thing, but when Yvonne said she wanted you in the lab full-time, you were furious. So I imagine your new job suits you."

"Oh yes, because I just love chasing monsters all round the City - and the countryside."

"You do, though. I can tell. But you seemed a bit... rattled earlier. What happened?"

"Yeah. Abby - she's one of my teammates - nearly got killed. We all thought she _was_ dead, actually. And then there's these rumours I've been hearing about Cutter, our team leader."

"What are they saying?"

"That he's a bit mad. Something about wild claims that this world's not the one he knows." She saw by Ianto's sudden tension that he'd thought of the same thing she had.

"You don't think - ?"

"I don't know. But I intend to find out."

"How?"

"I thought I'd ask."

**End of Act One**


	5. A Shift in Perspective

Disclaimer: Not mine. Thanks to Jen, my beta.

**Act Two: ...Doesn't Stay Out of the Home Office**

_**Chapter 5 - A Shift in Perspective: **_"So why are you sending me _now_, Jack?" Ashley Stafford asked dryly, one eyebrow raised. "I mean, I wanted to check out the Forest of Dean thing six months ago, but you said no."

"We have enough to do without chasing dinosaurs, Ash," Jack Harkness said. "But they've got a new problem. One of their people, Nick Cutter, disappeared a few months back. He went through one of those anomalies and never returned. But now he's back."

"And I'm interested why?"

"He came back claiming this world isn't the one he knows."

Ashley, who had been leaning back in her chair, suddenly sat bolt upright. "So you think he's from an alternate reality."

"Don't you?"

"Well, he could just be crazy."

"I doubt that, and you're being difficult. Anyway, realities are your specialty, and you've been keeping tabs on this project from day one. You're perfect for the job."

"Hmm. Speaking of keeping tabs, she may report to me, but you're the one who subverted James Lester's secretary."

"Don't ask. Just do me a favour and keep that quiet."

"Obviously."

"_Anyway_, you're being attached to the anomaly project for the foreseeable future. I still want you making regular reports to me, though."

"Of course you do. So what exactly do you want me to do? Am I supposed to try to get this Cutter back to his reality?"

"If you can, yeah. Otherwise... Ash, you'll be the one on the scene, and you know this stuff. I trust your judgment." He glanced at the clock on his desk. "You'd better get to the Home Office. I told Lester you'd be there at noon, which gives you about 35 minutes."

"Lovely," said Ashley. "And you waited this long to tell me?"

"Well, it's not like it's too far, Ash. We're in London, they're in London."

"Yes, but that means City traffic, Jack."

"You'd better run then."

She took the time to glare at him before dashing out.

* * *

One week. It had been one week since Nick - no, _Cutter_, Claudia reminded herself - had reappeared, and it felt like so much longer. Even longer than the three months he'd been missing.

She'd told Nick she had a bad feeling about the mission three months ago, and she'd been right. But she hadn't wanted to be. And she hadn't expected this.

It was ironic really. She had known she was attracted to Nick, had known it was more than just physical; that was why she'd kissed him before he went through the anomaly. But she hadn't known she was in love with him until his doppelganger - this wasn't the Nick she knew, she refused to believe it - had given her a blank look and said he'd never seen her before in his life.

Just remembering that moment turned Claudia's stomach, but since she was in the conference room with Lester, Stephen, Abby, and Connor, she didn't let it show. She really wished she knew what this meeting was about.

Lester had spent most of the week calling... Well, she didn't know _who_ Lester had been calling, which made her nervous. Usually, he had her spending hours on the phone when it was necessary. That he'd done it himself suggested that something was going on at a level she wasn't privy to.

"We need to discuss the Nick Cutter problem," said Lester.

"What do you expect us to do?" Stephen wanted to know.

"You? Nothing."

"Then why are we here?" Claudia cut in.

"I believed you would want to know what was happening. But if you're not interested, Miss Brown, you can go."

"No, I'll stay."

"Very well then. Now, about Cutter. When this project began, certain rules were set down. One of them was that if anyone ever returned through an anomaly claiming that the world had changed, I was to contact Jack Harkness, the head of the Torchwood Institute."

Claudia frowned. She'd heard vague references to Torchwood over her years in the Home Office, but she had absolutely no idea what they did. Few people seemed to. The impression she'd gotten, however, was that they were special-ops of some kind.

Connor, apparently, had heard the name as well - probably on a conspiracy theory website she thought. That theory was confirmed a moment later, when Connor decided to speak up.

"Torchwood?" he said, sounding shocked. "They're all over the Internet! Everyone says they're alien hunters or into something supernatural."

"And usually the craziest rumours about us are closest to the truth," said a light female voice. They all turned to look at the doorway. A tall young woman with bobbed black hair stood there, leaning casually against the doorframe.

"I take it you're the representative Harkness mentioned?" Lester asked, his disapproval of the woman's casual manner clear in his tone.

"Yes," she replied, either not picking up on the disdain or choosing to ignore it. "I'm Dr. Ashley Stafford," she continued, walking forward and offering a hand. Lester shook it briskly and told Stafford to take a seat before making short introductions.

Stafford smiled politely at them all before saying to Lester, "So, I'm told you've got a problem with a team member? He says this world's not the one he knows, right?"

"Yes," Lester confirmed. "Why did Harkness send you?"

"I'm a theoretical physicist. My boss thinks what happened was a switch of some kind. That is, he thinks the Nick Cutter you know is stuck in an alternate reality - "

"While that reality's Cutter is here," Connor cut in, sounding almost excited.

Claudia knew that was only because Connor loved the thought of more of his beloved science fiction being reality, she couldn't help but hate him a little for that.

"Basically, yeah," said Stafford. If she was surprised or annoyed at being interrupted she gave no sign of it.

"That's not real, though," Abby protested. "It's just stuff you see on TV and in films."

"You'd be surprised," Stafford said with a wry smile.

"Yes, well, what do you intend to do about it?" Lester wanted to know.

"It depends on what I can do. If possible, switching them back is the obvious choice. Before I even start though, I'll need to talk to Cutter - and all of you."

"Why us?" Stephen asked.

"Comparisons. I need to see exactly what the differences between realities are."

"Then set appointments with them later," Lester ordered her. "Right now, come with me. I want to know what Harkness wants you to do. _Everything _he wants you to do."

* * *

Nick Cutter wasn't happy. A week ago he'd returned from three months of wandering the bloody Permian only to be locked up. It seemed like the world was running mad.

Being locked up wasn't the half of it. The project was still based at the Home Office, not the ARC, and Oliver Leek had been replaced by a woman called Claudia Brown. It wasn't that he'd really liked Leek all that much - he hadn't in fact - but the man's absence only made it clearer that something was very wrong.

He'd been taken out of the cell and brought to an interrogation room, where he'd been left alone. Exhausted, he wondered what games were being played now.

The door opened to reveal another new face, a dark-haired young woman in a black pantsuit. "Hello, Professor. I'm Dr. Ashley Stafford," she said pleasantly, sitting across from him.

"So who did you replace?" Nick asked.

"No one," said Stafford, raising an eyebrow at the odd question. "I'm new, on loan from another organisation to figure out what's happening here."

"The world's gone bloody mad, that's what's happened."

"Hmm. Maybe not. The world hasn't changed, Professor. At least, I doubt it."

"So I'm crazy then."

"I didn't say that, did I? Look, from what I've been told so far, it sounds like you're from a different reality. I don't know how you got here, though. What exactly happened in the Permian? That's the era, yes?"

"Yeah. After the mission was completed, I was heading for the anomaly with Helen when she knocked me out. I woke up and spent three months trying to find a way home. When I found one, I came out here."

Stafford frowned. "Was there anything unusual about the anomaly? A different color or size, something?"

"No, it was exactly like the others."

Had he done this to himself, then? Or had Helen set him up? He'd already figured out that she'd stranded him in the past as some kind of payback, but had she caused this as well?

* * *

After leaving Cutter, Ashley went to see Lester again.

"Well?" the man asked her when she came in. "Were you right?"

"I think so, yes. I'll need you to send a sample of his blood to Torchwood to confirm. There are ways to tell and our people know what to look for."

"Very well. Is there anything else?"

"Just talking to the rest of the team."

"That's your responsibility. If that's all, you can go."

Ashley left without another word. She didn't like Lester - he reminded her of Thomas Wolsen, the snobbish head of Torchwood Four in Northampton. But she knew better than to let it show.

She managed to catch the young man who'd interrupted her in the meeting, Connor Temple. He'd told her everything he remembered quite cheerfully, and then proceeded to question her about Torchwood. She deflected most queries and gave half answers to others before making her escape.

When she left to go home, she sat in her car for a moment, thinking about the things she'd learned. She couldn't deny that she was excited about all of this. Alternate realities were her pet project, something that had fascinated her ever since she'd seen that American TV program _Sliders_, about a group of people who travelled realities trying to find their own. That interest had been what had drawn her to physics in the first place.

It would also be one hell of an academic challenge to try to get Cutter home and find the Cutter who was supposed to be in this reality. And Ashley Stafford had always loved challenges.


	6. The Human Element

Disclaimer: Not mine. Thanks to Jen, my beta.

_**Chapter 6 - The Human Element:**_ A week later, Ashley had pages of notes from Stephen, Abby, and Connor as well as the confirmation that Cutter wasn't from this reality. What she didn't have were any viable theories as to what had happened.

She also didn't have any notes from Claudia Brown, as she hadn't had a chance to interview the Civil Servant yet. So Ashley set off in search of her.

Claudia wasn't that hard to find. She was in one of the file rooms, looking for something. "Miss Brown?"

Claudia turned. "Yes, Dr. Stafford?"

"I need to talk to you about the months before the future predator incident. Are you busy right now?"

"Not very, no."

What she said was mostly similar to what the others had said - right down to the feeling that_ something _rather important was being omitted. Whatever it was, Ashley hoped it was of personal significance and not something that might affect her work.

Claudia hesitated before leaving the little office, looking at the papers scattered on the desk. "So, how is it coming?"

Ashley looked up from the notes she was reading, surprised by the question - she'd almost forgotten Claudia was still there. "Sorry?"

"How is it coming?" Claudia repeated.

"Well, it's only been a week. But I know the two worlds aren't that different overall, based on what you lot have said and what Cutter's told me. Which might be a good thing if you go with the theory that similar realities are closer together, relatively speaking. I never thought that was the case, so it's a bit irritating, but obviously better for Cutter - or both Cutters, I guess... Sorry, I'm rambling. I have a bad habit of that."

"You're looking at this like a puzzle, aren't you?"

Ashley frowned. What had upset the other woman? Something had, that was clear.

"Yes," she said cautiously. "I'm an academic; that's how I approach most things."

"Well, maybe while you're working out your academic puzzle, you could try to remember that there are real people whose lives are tied up in it," Claudia snapped before walking out.

Had she looked back, she would have seen Ashley staring after her, looking like she'd been hit in the face.

* * *

That night, Ashley went to Tommy's, a pub near Torchwood Tower. It was Friday night, and a lot of the younger Torchwood employees went there on Friday nights.

She found the usual crowd - Ianto Jones, Lisa Hallett, Daniel Malone, Toshiko Sato, and Owen Harper - at their usual table and headed over. Dan saw her first.

"Hello, love, how's it going?" he called.

Ashley rolled her eyes, sliding into the chair next to him. He draped his arm over the back, where it brushed her shoulders. She almost told him to move the arm, but she liked having it there, so she didn't bother.

"So, how's the new post?" Lisa asked.

"Fine," said Ashley, trying not to remember the scene earlier in the day. "I haven't gotten that far yet."

"It's alternate reality stuff, yeah?" Owen wanted to know. "Jack had me do the reality marker test, and he said it was for you."

"He loves getting his Cardiff buddies to do stuff for him, doesn't he?" Ashley remarked. "Yeah, it is. I've got a man who's in the wrong reality, and his counterpart from this one is missing."

"Sounds complicated. And of course Jack likes bossing us around; it's why he brought us with him to London," Tosh commented.

"Except for Gwen," Dan observed.

"He orders Gwen about too," Owen argued.

"Gwen is Jack's girlfriend, so I'm sure he does order her around. But do we really want to know about that?" Dan quipped.

"Oh God," Ashley muttered, trying to dispel those images from her mind. "I need a drink," she said, heading for the bar.

She ordered a margarita and went back to the table just as someone else joined them. "Hello, Dr. Ashley," said Tom Howard.

Ashley smiled, shaking her head. "Tom, drop the 'Dr.' bit."

"Hey, this time last week you were my boss," her former intern said defensively.

"Yeah, and I told you to just call me Ashley then too."

"Oh, leave the boy alone," said Dan.

"Guess who I heard from," Ianto said, changing the subject. They all looked over at him, and he continued. "Micah Trevaine. He's getting married."

"Oh, to his crazy redhead?" Dan asked.

"Yeah, Paula," Ianto said. "They said we'll all be invited, but as it's in California I doubt Jack will let us all go."

"He might," Tosh disagreed. "He and Paula are old friends, so he'll be going himself I'm sure."

"True," Ianto agreed.

* * *

They spread out after that. Tosh and Lisa headed for the pool tables, while Dan, Owen, and Tom started a drinking game. Ianto eyed Ashley over the rim of his glass.

"Ash, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," Ashley lied, knowing it was useless. She and Ianto had been recruited together and had been friends ever since. He knew her nearly as well as she knew herself. So she told him what had happened with Claudia.

"And she was right, that's the thing!" Ashley concluded. "I was looking at this like... like one of the classroom debates from university!"

"But being detached is actually good," Ianto pointed out. "You have to be objective."

"True. But I can be objective and human at the same time, can't I?"

"You can try. That's all you can do," Ianto replied. He glanced away when Lisa gestured for him to come over to the pool tables, breaking the solemn moment.

"You'd best see what your girlfriend wants," Ashley teased.

Ianto grinned and left the table. Dan, his voice slightly slurred, asked her to dance.

"Can you dance right now?" she quipped, but followed him to the floor anyway.

Despite the alcohol, Dan was actually a pretty good dancer. The music was fast and he twirled her out, startling a laugh from her. Then he spun her back until she was pressed against him, and her laughter died abruptly.

"You know, we're not co-workers anymore," he said softly. "So you can go out with me."

"It's not permanent," she whispered, biting her lip. "I'm only on loan, you know that."

"I don't see how it matters anyway. Look at Ianto and Lisa, or Jack and Gwen. Hell, Jack's the goddamn head of the program! So what's stopping you?"

"I just... I can't!" She broke away from him, running out of the pub and to her car. She leaned against it, letting the cool breeze soothe her as she closed her eyes.

Why couldn't he see the danger? If they had a love affair and it went bad, that could cause irreparable damage to their jobs. What if they couldn't think clearly in the field and someone got hurt or worse because of it? She'd tried to explain that before, but he never listened.

"All you can do is try." Ianto had said that earlier, and he was right. That was all she could do. Try to keep Dan at arm's length, try to fix the reality problem without forgetting that there were real people involved. It sounded so simple, but it wasn't. She just hoped she could pull it off.


	7. Adjustment Rate

Disclaimer: Not mine, except Ashley.

_**Chapter 7 - Adjustment Rate:**_ The next morning, Ashley went to an outdoor firing range just outside the City. Members of Torchwood frequented the place, but for once it was deserted. Which was exactly what she wanted.

She'd brought a rifle - she wasn't very good with them, or not as good as she was with a handgun, anyway. The challenge of using a weapon she was less comfortable with was a good distraction for her. She didn't want to think right now. She just wanted to focus on something else until she could be reasonable, rational, about everything in her life.

She was walking from one area to another when she suddenly tripped. Getting back up, she looked at the ground. She'd tripped because it had suddenly become uneven. What she saw when she looked down made her go suddenly cold. _What the hell makes a footprint like that? _Whatever it was, she would have bet everything she owned that it had come through an anomaly.

* * *

Nick stood before Lester's desk, feeling annoyingly like a teenage boy hauled before the headmaster. He'd been that teenage boy more than once, but didn't appreciate the regression. Still, this was important.

"So, since you are technically the same man, it's been decided that you're free to take the place of the original Cutter. You have the keys for his - your - house, presumably. And you're cleared to work on this project."

Nick was relieved, if only a little. Working here he'd be able to find a way home. That girl, Stafford, she was supposed to be working on that. He wanted to be in the loop on whatever she did.

"Right," he said. "Well, I think I'll go home then." And he walked out of the office, nearly colliding with a woman.

Claudia, he remembered. Her name was Claudia Brown. "Sorry, Miss Brown," he said politely. He had the feeling she didn't like him, so he thought it was probably best not to push her.

"Not a problem, Cutter," she said, her voice cool. "Though you might want to watch where you're going."

She strode past him into Lester's office, leaving him to wonder what exactly his counterpart had done to her that had made her so determined to dislike him.

He got a cab - luckily, the money was the same in this reality, so he could pay for it - and went home. The place was more or less the same as in his reality, the only differences being minor details. He relaxed for the first time since travelling into the Permian. This wasn't home, exactly, but it was close enough, and until he could find his way back to his proper reality, he was glad to have it.

When the phone rang, he picked it up. "Hello?"

Stephen was on the other end. "Are you up for a mission?"

"Yeah."

"Good, we've got an anomaly. The new girl, Stafford, called it in."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Should I come by and grab you? I've got the van."

"That would help. Thanks."

* * *

The first car to show up was a Mini Coupe, with Abby behind the wheel and Connor in the passenger seat. Ashley smiled at them, having gotten to like them from her meetings with them. "So, how did you two become the advance guard?"

"Abby likes to break speed limits," said Connor dryly.

"So do I," Ashley said with a smirk. "Come on, the footprint's over here. Hopefully one of you will know what it is."

"Connor will. He's the dinosaur expert. I'm a lizard girl myself," Abby said.

"What's the difference? Sorry, biology of any flavour never was my thing. My half-brother likes dinosaurs, but I was never much of a one for them."

Abby was about to reply when Connor's exclamation interrupted the girls' chat. "Triceratops!"

"You're kidding," said Abby.

"Even I know that one," Ashley said with a frown. "And while I hate to bring up _Jurassic Park_, I seem to recall it was pretty big in the film. That footprint's saying they were right."

"Yeah, but they're herbivores. Shouldn't be too much of a problem."

"What shouldn't be?" said a male voice from behind them, a voice with a distinctive Scottish accent.

"Oh, hello Professor," said Connor, looking slightly uncomfortable. "Stephen," he added, nodding at the dark-haired man who'd walked up beside Cutter.

"What is it, Connor?" Stephen asked, repeating Cutter's question.

"Triceratops."

"Well, at least they're not predators," said Claudia Brown, walking up to join them. "That's something." She smiled slightly at the surprise on Connor's face. "I have seen _Jurassic Park_, you know. It used to be my favourite film. But I seem to have lost my fondness for it."

"A lot of people are referencing that movie today," Abby observed. Ashley grinned at her, while Claudia raised her eyebrows but didn't ask.

* * *

"I want you and your men to spread out and search for the creature," Claudia ordered Captain Becker, the new SAS commander. She turned to see Cutter watching her. "Can I do something for you, Professor?"

"What's your problem with me, Miss Brown?"

"I'm sorry?"

"I can tell you have a problem with me. I think I deserve to know why."

"I don't have a problem with you."

"Really."

"No, I don't," she said coldly, her tone belying the words. And she walked away. She wasn't about to tell Nick's double why she didn't want to deal with him. He didn't need to know, and he had no right to ask.

* * *

Nick watched Claudia go, frustrated. How was he supposed to smooth things over if he didn't know what to fix?

Stephen came up beside him. "Tangling with Claudia?"

"Yeah. What the hell did my double do to her?"

"'Do to her'?"

"Well, there has to be something. She hates me."

"It's not that simple, Nick."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"The other Nick... He and Claudia..." Stephen trailed off, running a hand through his hair and looking decidedly uncomfortable. "Look, can't you just let it go?"

"No. What kind of mess did I step into?"

Stephen sighed. "Claudia kissed the other Nick, and she did it right in front of Lester. And he kissed her back. They liked each other, a lot."

"What, Claudia and my counterpart?"

"Yeah."

"Oh," Nick said, not really knowing what else to say. He looked in the direction Claudia had gone and saw her talking on her mobile to someone - Lester, presumably. Now her behaviour made sense. Had someone appeared in his life who looked just like Helen - someone who _was_ Helen, just not the one he knew - after her disappearance, he wasn't sure what he would have done. He probably wouldn't have handled it as well as Claudia was doing. She was just freezing him out. In the same situation, he wasn't sure he would handle it as well as she seemed to be.

She looked his way and for a second he could tell she'd forgotten who he was - or wasn't, more accurately. The flash of warmth in her eyes made him uncomfortable, but when it faded, it was replaced not by the cold look he'd expected, but by a flash of pain he only saw for an instant before she looked away. It made him feel almost guilty for a second, even though none of this was his fault. More than anything, he just wished he could go home, and that his double could too. They'd all be much better off.

* * *

Ashley, Connor, and Abby were some distance away from the others, still near the first footprint. "So what were you doing out here anyway?" Abby asked.

Ashley showed her the rifle. "Practicing."

"Oh. Are you any good with that?"

"Not as good as I'd like to be."

They were distracted by a camera click. Both women glared at Connor, who gave them a sheepish smile. "Sorry, but I had to add Ashley to my set, didn't I?"

"Set?" Ashley asked, frowning.

Abby rolled her eyes. "He's been taking pictures of all of us for the past few weeks. A lot of candids, and a few posed."

"I've been bored. Besides, my Dad's a photographer, and he used to take me along on his jobs. It's fun to do."

"Hmm," said Ashley. "Can I see them?"

"Sure," he said, handing the camera over. She made her way through the pictures, examining them all on the camera's display screen. One made her stop. It was a posed photo, of Cutter - though she imagined this was the original Cutter rather than the one she knew - and Claudia. They were just standing next to each other, but there was something about them that suggested... more. Maybe she was reading too much into it, but there seemed to be an underlying tension there.

She shook her head. She never was good at interpreting images. She continued to look through the photos until a faint trembling in the ground made her look up. "Um, guys..."

Abby and Connor, who had been arguing about Abby's flat - something about how Connor had said he'd only be staying with her for a week and it had turned into four and a half months - turned at the sound of Ashley's voice. Just as she had, they found themselves face-to-face with a Triceratops.

Ashley reached for the rifle instinctively, stopping when she felt a hand on her wrist.

"Don't," Abby murmured. "It's not attacking us."

"Not yet," Ashley hissed back.

"Relax," Connor whispered urgently. "It's a herbivore, it won't attack unless - " Something beeped loudly in his bag, and the Triceratops roared, charging forward.

"Shit!" Ashley cried as she and Abby leapt out of the way.

" - it's startled," Connor finished with a grunt as he hit the ground hard, having dived away from the oncoming creature. The three of them got up slowly, watching as the Triceratops stampeded away.

"I take it beeping startles it," Ashley commented, her voice very dry. "What was that anyway?"

"Um, my Game Boy."

"You need to stop bringing that thing, Con," said Abby. Then she frowned. "Do we know what way it went?"

* * *

Nick felt the ground tremble slightly and frowned, glancing at Stephen. "You don't think...?"

"I hope not," Stephen said, grabbing a tranquilizer gun as Claudia came over to them.

"Tell me that's not what I think it is," she said.

"It is," said Nick, who had just caught sight of the running Triceratops. Stephen fired a shot that bounced harmlessly off the animal's frill.

"Damn it!" he muttered, reloading the gun.

Nick knew he really should move, but he was fascinated. Once again he was struck by the more amazing part of this job - seeing animals like this, creatures he'd studied for years, trying to imagine from their bones what they must have been like in life. Unfortunately, he was a little too fascinated.

The next thing he knew, something collided with him, sending him to the ground as the Triceratops thundered by. He looked around and saw Claudia on the ground next to him.

"What the hell were you doing?" she demanded. "Trying to commit suicide?"

Nick didn't want to admit he'd simply been transfixed, and was saved from doing so by the sound of Stephen's tranquilizer gun. This time he caught the dinosaur in the leg, and it went down.

Claudia got up, brushing herself off. "Well, I'd better go call Lester," she said, walking away again.

"I'll go find the SAS guys," Stephen added before leaving as well.

Nick sighed. He'd noticed Connor's hesitation when he'd spoken to the student, and apparently even Stephen was uncomfortable with him. He supposed he couldn't blame them, but it still stung. He really needed to find a way back.

* * *

Claudia leaned against her car, her eyes closed. Twice today she'd forgotten that Cutter wasn't her Nick. The first time had been when they'd made eye contact while he'd been talking to Stephen, and the second had been when he'd nearly been run down by that dinosaur.

It was so much worse than having him gone completely had been. So much more painful than anything she could have imagined. _Even having found him dead would be easier... _

God, she hoped they were able to fix things soon. There was even some consideration for Cutter in that; she imagined he wanted to go home as much as they wanted the proper Nick Cutter back. But for her, personally... If things weren't put right soon, she may just lose her mind.

* * *

Helen watched from the shadows, curious as to what was happening in her own reality. For the first time, Nick hardly held her attention. But then, he wasn't her Nick, and his reaction to his new world didn't interest her. He was here only because he had to be out of his world so she could punish her Nick, not because she had anything against him.

Though she was enjoying watching as the woman who thought she could steal Nick away slowly fell apart. As if she ever could take Nick away. Her main goal in all of this had been punishing Nick, but hurting Claudia Brown was an entertaining side effect of it. Revenge was always fun.

Someone else caught her attention, a woman with bobbed black hair who approached Nick, asking him something. Helen's eyes narrowed. Wasn't that girl a new recruit in the other reality? Apparently some things didn't change. As long as the girl - either version - didn't meddle in her plans, Helen didn't give a damn.

Speaking of meddling... She was going to have to talk to her counterpart again. The woman was a bit more squeamish than Helen would have expected a version of herself - particularly one who'd travelled the anomalies as she had - to be, but had been a willing partner until now. But these days she was starting to seem uncomfortable with what they'd done, and Helen couldn't have her confessing to anyone. She would simply have to talk her other self around. And if talking failed? Well, there were other ways to quiet someone.

**End of Act Two**


	8. A Picture Says a Thousand Words

Disclaimer: Not mine, except Ashley.

**Act Three: Treachery, Team Dynamics, and Translocation**

_**Chapter 8 - A Picture Says a Thousand Words:**_ It turned out that asking Cutter about the rumours wasn't as easy as Ashley had made it sound when talking to Ianto. First off, she wanted to get him alone to ask, because this type of thing wasn't something one generally wanted overheard. But getting him alone wasn't easy, and even if she managed it, the ARC was probably full of cameras and hidden recorders. Keeping it all confidential was a nearly impossible goal.

And even if she did pull that bit off, there was the issue of how exactly to go about asking. "Are you crazy or from an alternate reality?" wasn't the sort of question that rolled off the tongue, after all. She was hoping that something would happen to give her an excuse to bring it up, but until then she was fresh out of ideas.

So she put it in the back of her mind, concentrating on other things. Like her promise to teach Connor how to use a gun. Which was why she was to be found one sunny Saturday morning at an outdoor firing range a few miles outside London with Connor and Abby. Abby was there because Connor lived with her and he didn't have a car, so she'd given him a ride. She'd also come by to try to talk Ashley out of this idea.

"You do know Connor's hopeless with guns, yes?" Abby said to Ashley just after she and Connor had arrived. "He shot me with a tranquilizer gun once, just like the park manager."

"That would be the point of teaching him. Having someone in the field who can't defend himself is one hell of a liability."

"I'm still keeping my distance while he's shooting," Abby stated, shaking her head.

"Fair enough."

* * *

It turned out that Connor wasn't actually that bad. Ashley guessed that it was the pressure of a tense situation that made him so erratic. Granted, his aim wasn't all that good, but he improved as the morning went on. For the most part.

"Relax!" she called. "Don't pump the trigger, just press it!" Connor jumped at her voice and his shot went wild.

"Watch it, Con!" Abby called - from a distance, just as she'd said.

"Well, Ashley startled me," Connor tried to defend himself.

"You can't startle so easily, Connor," Ashley told him. "That's half your problem."

"How do I stop that? It's my personality."

"You've got to overcome it."

Connor scowled at Ashley's lack of sympathy but went back to practicing. Abby went to her car to get something and Ashley sighed, getting bored.

"Are you trying to get us all killed?" a voice asked mildly. Ashley whirled to see Stephen standing a few feet away.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, a bit surprised he knew about this place. It was a bit out of the way, not a place most people frequented.

He gestured to the rifle slung over his shoulder. "Practice. You never answered my question."

"Do you really think it's a good idea for someone in our line of work to be defenceless in the field?"

"Do you really think letting him have a gun is a good idea?"

"You know, I've already been through this with Abby and I find it a bit wearing."

"Well, I'll let it go then," Stephen said, grinning at her.

The grin hit her hard, not because she thought Stephen was attractive (she did, but she wasn't interested; she got the feeling he was somehow taken) but because it was a mix of amusement and mischief that reminded her far too much of someone else. But she didn't want to think of Dan right now, so she focused on Stephen.

"So, how did you know about this place? It's not exactly well-known," he was asking, echoing her own earlier thought.

"I used to come here with some of the people from work. We were all Special Ops and wanted to stay in shape."

"What exactly would a physicist do on a Special Ops force?"

"Oh, this and that."

Stephen seemed about to ask more when both of their mobiles beeped. "Text from Cutter," Stephen said grimly. "Another anomaly."

Connor ran over to join them, too curious about the anomaly to be more than mildly surprised at Stephen's presence. Abby was waiting in the parking lot and sped off the second Connor was in the passenger seat, tires squealing. Apparently she liked breaking speed limits as much as Ashley did. Stephen headed for the silver SUV and Ashley jumped on her motorbike, speeding after them.

* * *

Cutter and Jenny were already at the latest site, studying the group of duck-billed dinosaurs calmly grazing in a field.

"It's a good thing that the person who called this in only saw the anomaly," Jenny observed.

"Afraid of not being able to cover it up?" Ashley quipped.

"Look at them."

"Fair point," Ashley agreed.

Stephen looked at Cutter. "So, what's the plan?"

"Well," Cutter replied, "we're going to need a lot of tranquilizer."

* * *

They needed a Mack truck too, as it happened, to transport the dinosaurs back to the anomaly. Jenny complained about that.

"How am I supposed to explain this?" she asked Cutter.

"You'd rather explain the dinosaurs?" he retorted, walking off to talk to Stephen without bothering to wait for a response.

Jenny scowled after him before stalking off, muttering under her breath. Ashley caught the comment, "Sometimes I really hate that man," and bit back a laugh. She didn't think Jenny had intended anyone to hear her less-than-professional ranting.

Looking around idly, she noticed something in the grass. Someone had dropped their wallet. She picked it up and opened it, intending to check for an ID. But that wasn't what caught her eye. Instead her gaze landed on a photo tucked inside. It was Cutter- which told her who the wallet belonged to - with a woman who at first glance looked like Jenny.

_Speaking of... _She glanced in the direction the other woman had gone, seeing that Jenny was now arguing with someone on her mobile. Good; that meant she was sufficiently distracted and probably wouldn't be back near Ashley for a while.

Looking at the picture again, the first thing Ashley noted was that the woman wasn't Jenny. The hair was auburn and loose rather than dark brown and twisted into a bun and the clothes were a quieter style. All that aside, though, she didn't think Cutter and Jenny were friendly enough to pose for a photo together. Still, the resemblance went beyond uncanny. Was this the woman Johnson had mentioned, Claudia? It seemed likely.

She caught up to Cutter and handed him back his wallet - closed - without comment. Which didn't mean she wasn't ever going to comment. It looked like she now had an excuse to ask her questions.

* * *

That night she went over to Cutter's house. She wasn't fully comfortable with the idea, but the alternative was talking to him at work, and she'd already decided that was a bad idea. Still, she hesitated before ringing his doorbell.

_Just suck it up, Stafford. You want answers, remember? _she reminded herself sternly. With a sigh, she rang the bell before discomfort could cloud her mind again.

Cutter opened the door a moment later, clearly surprised to see her. "Ashley. What are you doing here?"

"Can I come in?" was all she said.

"Sure." He stepped aside to let her pass. "Is something wrong?"

"Not exactly."

"I don't like how that sounds." They walked into his lounge, where he took a seat, gesturing for her to do the same. "So what do you mean by 'not exactly'?"

Ashley shifted slightly, toying with her braid. "Well, I wanted to talk to you about some things I've been hearing. About you."

"Oh, the rumours that I've gone mad? Rambling about worlds gone wrong?" His voice was uncharacteristically bitter. Ashley felt a little guilty for bringing up what was obviously a sore subject, but she knew she had to know what was going on.

"Yes, except I don't think you're crazy. Even if I had... Well, when I picked up your wallet today I opened it to check the ID and I saw a photo you had in there. I could tell that woman's not Jenny, same features or not."

"No, she's not Jenny," he said. His voice wasn't friendly.

"Look, Cutter, I'm aware this isn't my business, and you have every right to tell me to bugger off," Ashley said quietly. "The only reason I'm bringing it up is because I think I might know what happened."

"I know what happened," Cutter said harshly. "Travelling through the anomalies caused changes in the timeline."

"How drastic were the changes?"

"What?"

"The changes. Were there a lot of them or just a few? And did they make events very different?"

"We were still at the Home Office, there was no ARC. And..." He trailed off, a flash of pain crossing his face. "Leek wasn't around because Claudia Brown had his position."

"The woman in the photo?"

"Yeah."

She hesitated, but curiosity won out. "She was important to you, wasn't she?"

"Does it matter now? As far as everyone's concerned, she doesn't exist, she never did. Jenny does."

"Maybe. But, well, I'm not sure we're dealing with a timeline change here. The differences are so specific, if you get what I mean."

"No, not really."

"Well, if it was a timeline change, there's no way in hell that it happened just because you went through an anomaly. Someone would have had to deliberately set out to cause the changes, and that's more or less impossible."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because time's not... Events aren't like books on a bookshelf to be rearranged at random. Screwing with the timeline usually creates a paradox, and then it has to be reset before the universe rips itself apart. So I think we're dealing with something else."

Cutter's eyes narrowed, and she figured he was trying to decide what to ask about next, her theory on what had happened or just how she knew what a paradox did. Finally he said, "So what do you think happened then?"

"You might have crossed realities."

"Alternate realities are just a theory, at best. You're starting to sound like Connor."

The comparison to Connor might have made her laugh, except the scepticism in Cutter's voice bothered her. A theory? She saw Cybermen marching through the Torchwood Tower, but she managed to bite back the scathing comment the memory made her want to voice. "You'd be surprised," she said instead.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just that a lot of 'theories' have been proven - unofficially at least."

"Now you're really sounding like Connor."

"I'm not talking conspiracy theories. I just know things."

"Hmm. So, how could I have crossed realities without knowing it?"

"Maybe anomalies cross realities all the time and we just don't know it since the times don't match up. I don't know. But like I said, if the timeline was altered, we're talking about a near-certain paradox, and if that were the case, I think we'd have noticed the world falling apart by now."

* * *

Silence fell after that. Nick didn't know what to think. Hell, he couldn't believe that after all this time, someone finally believed he was telling the truth, that he wasn't crazy. And then all this talk of alternate realities... He couldn't quite wrap his head around it. But one question broke through.

"Could I get back? If this isn't my reality and I somehow travelled here, I should be able to go back, yes?"

Ashley sighed. "I don't know for sure. We'd have to work out how you got here first."

"'We'd'? This isn't your problem."

"No, but I'd like to help. I want to help you fix things, whatever has to be done."

"Why?" To Nick's mind, this seemed like too much of a lucky break, especially considering the way his life had been going lately.

"I don't know. Because your situation sucks. Because if you're right and this is a timeline change, then it needs fixing before things fall apart. Does it really matter?"

Nick thought about it. This was possibly the best thing he'd heard since returning through the Permian anomaly to find a world gone wrong. Did the reasons really matter? "No, I guess not."

But one thing did matter. "How do you know about all of this? And don't just say you know things, or that you can't say. I want the truth."

_The truth... _What was the truth anymore, Ashley wondered distantly. And why hadn't she seen this coming? She should have, really. Shit. So what now?

She looked Nick Cutter right in the eyes and knew that she could tell him everything, all about Torchwood and exactly what they'd done, and he'd believe it, or at least not dismiss it out of hand. But she didn't want to do that. Wasn't sure she _could_ do that. But he deserved better than an all-out lie.

"I used to work for a group called the Torchwood Institute. We were involved in, well, basically science fiction. Time travel, alternate realities, UFOs, cloning... You name it, we did something or other with it. I guess it was just a matter of time before something went wrong."

"So what did?"

"A group of scientists were working with this sphere, and they opened a hole between realities. When they did... they pulled these things through. They were called Cybermen, and they're robots, androids of a sort, really. They're, well, I'm not sure what they were created for, maybe to be someone's personal army, but they're very good at killing. And they're independent of human rule now, if they ever were subservient, and they want to take over. They tried to use our base at Canary Wharf to do it."

She paused, trying to tell the story like it was just a story, trying not to see it all over again.

"There were 823 employees at the Torchwood Tower - our base of operations. By the time the Cybermen had finished with us, there were only 27 survivors." She focused on the numbers so she didn't see the faces. Didn't think of Dan, because if she did, she might start to scream and never stop.

That was as much truth as she was willing to give in one day. She hoped it was enough for him.

Nick just stared at her, not knowing exactly what to say. He hadn't really been expecting anything, but he'd never have guessed that. "I'd say I'm sorry, but that's not really worth much, is it?"

"Not really, no, though I appreciate the sentiment." She shrugged. "So, did I prove my credentials to talk about weird science?" The joke fell flat after her story, but Nick understood. Move away from the bad memories before they took you over.

"And then some. So, you really think this is all some cross-reality mix-up?"

"It makes sense."

"So what do we do about it?"

"First, figure out what happened, exactly. And then we reverse it."

"Just that simple?"

"Well, it's not as easy as it sounds, but yeah."

And for the first time in months, Nick felt like the pieces of his existence were finally coming back under his control. There was a chance, however small, that things could be put right. He had to reach for that chance, no matter what it took.


	9. Elephant in the Room

Disclaimer: Not mine, except Ashley and Matt.

A/N: Just one chapter this time. Chapters 10-12 are not cooperating, though after them, 13-19 are written out and just need to be typed up. The story's all outlined and should be 24 chapters long. Oh, and I know my reporter isn't the one in the actual episode 2.06, but that was intentional, and you'll see why.

_**Chapter 9 - Elephant in the Room:**_ The next few weeks brought interesting developments. Nick and Stephen nearly got trapped in the past - the Silurian, apparently, though the word meant nothing to Ashley. Just before that, Connor had discovered that someone had tampered with his ADD, infesting it with spyware that allowed someone else to track the anomalies. Coupled with the mercenary Nick and Stephen had discovered in the past, it seemed as though there really was a conspiracy.

Which was probably the reason for the clandestine meeting in the locker room, Ashley thought, leaning against the lockers while Abby lifted weights and Connor spotted her. Abby had music playing, but it wasn't Ashley's type, which was why she'd pulled out her iPod and turned it to blaring. When Stephen and Nick got here, she'd take it off, but until then she enjoyed the sounds of the American band Nickelback.

Stephen arrived first, but Nick was only a minute behind him. The first thing he did when he got there was turn up the boom box volume.

"Paranoid much?" Connor commented.

"I don't want to be overheard," Nick explained. And the explanation he gave for the meeting confirmed Ashley's suspicions; he wanted to talk about the conspiracy. Ashley was surprised to be included in the conference; as a new team member, she'd have thought they might suspect her. Apparently she'd earned their trust.

Stephen seemed to already be convinced of the traitor's identity, and apparently Nick knew it, judging from the pointed exchange between the two. She wondered just who Stephen suspected. She herself couldn't think of anyone.

The discussion was interrupted by the sound of the anomaly alarm. All five of them ran out of the locker room. When Ashley heard about the newest anomaly, she was torn between the urge to laugh and the urge to cry. They were really in one hell of a mess now.

"Mammoth on the M26!" she heard Jenny say. _Of all the places_... the M26 was one of the area's busiest motorways. Ashley couldn't think of a worse situation - well, minus a T-Rex attacking a tourist group at Big Ben or something. At least the mammoth was of the hairless variety (who knew there'd _been_ a hairless variety?) which meant that maybe the situation was salvageable. If Jenny could pull off a PR miracle, anyway.

Ashley pushed the speculations out of her mind as she, Nick, Abby, and Connor piled into the sliver SUV, Stephen saying he'd meet them there as he'd forgotten something. She didn't like Stephen's manner as he said that, but told herself her paranoia was popping up again. What could Stephen have to hide that was more important than a mammoth on a busy motorway?

* * *

They got to the scene, where the mammoth was, well, going berserk. It was overturning and trampling cars, and Ashley saw it knock a man a good twenty feet with its trunk. Jenny immediately melted away; Ashley assumed the other woman was hurrying to contain the situation. Though how in God's name it _could_ be, she had no idea. _Maybe we can get a shipment of retcon from Torchwood Cardiff_, she thought.

Nick rushed off to an overturned car where a woman, trapped inside, was screaming bloody murder. Abby, Connor, and Ashley followed, to find that the woman had a young son who was able to get out. Nick had Connor take charge of the boy while he tried to get the mother out - her legs were pinned by the crushed front of the car. Abby glanced at Ashley. "I've got an idea," she said. Then she ran off, jumping into a yellow sports car and speeding away.

Ashley looked around, thinking quickly. She would just be in the way trying to help Nick, and she wasn't exactly sure where Connor had taken the kid. She needed to do something, but what? Distractions, they were always a good idea. Something, anything, to get that damned animal's attention. There were plenty of totaled cars here; maybe she could set off an explosion. She didn't have any better ideas, so she headed for the nearest totaled car.

She was distracted by a loud trumpet from the mammoth, which was now careening toward the car with Nick and the woman. "Oh shit," Ashley said, running back the way she'd come, even though she knew there wasn't anything she could do. She was only able to watch as the mammoth's tusk pierced the car. Luckily, although the car was even more totaled, neither Nick nor the woman had been hurt.

Connor, meanwhile, had apparently decided to commandeer a lorry with a six-year-old (maybe five, maybe seven, somewhere around that age), because the next loud noise was from the lorry's horn. It was a good idea, as it turned out. The mammoth ran for the lorry, while Nick got the woman out of the car and handed her over to Ashley as she couldn't stand on a leg that looked broken. Abby came back toting a tank of female elephant urine from the local zoo - she thought it would attract the mammoth, who was male. When she'd figured that out, Ashley had no idea, but the plan worked.

Granted, the plan had to be modified, because, unfortunately, the anomaly had closed. So instead, they lured the mammoth into the lorry Connor had taken over. It was, Ashley decided, a novel use for a delivery lorry.

"We just caught a mammoth," Connor said when he came out of the truck, clearly pleased. Ashley shook her head. Typical Connor.

"Yeah, now what do we do with it?" she asked dryly.

"Who knows?" said Abby wearily.

* * *

Later, Ashley was standing a little distance from the mass of rescue vehicles when she noticed Jenny talking rather forcefully to a red-haired man holding a notebook. A reporter. And not just any reporter. Matthew Blake was Ashley's stepbrother. "Damn it, Matt," she muttered, before hurrying over.

"Ash, what the hell are you doing here?" he demanded when she came up behind Jenny, his eyes wide and angry.

"I should be asking you that, Matt."

"Do you two know each other?" Jenny asked.

"He's my brother."

"I don't see a resemblance."

"Stepbrother. Sorry. Look, Jenny, I'll handle this, OK? Trust me." Jenny didn't look convinced, but she nodded and strode off. Ashley turned back to Matt, who was clearly furious.

"What the hell is going on, Ashley? And why are you still involved in this shit? I thought you'd have wised up by now."

Damn it, the old argument. Matt had once tried to investigate Torchwood, and only some very fast talking on Ashley's part had stopped Yvonne from getting him sectioned. Since then, her stepbrother, the only family member she actually got on with, had not trusted her. Matt had always been anti-establishment, and he was furious with her for working in a shadowy government program.

"Matt, just shut up, OK? Don't you get the kind of trouble you could get yourself into?"

"Don't you get that people like that brunette bitch or that blonde shark who snagged you at uni always stab you in the back in the end, Ash?" he shot back, as angry as she was. The two of them glared at each other for several minutes, neither wanting to back down. Finally Ashley sighed. "Matt, don't worry about me. I know what I've gotten myself into. I always do." Which wasn't strictly true - she hadn't known what Yvonne was signing her up for with Torchwood, but with the anomaly project, she had known.

He smiled wryly. "I've really only got myself to blame. I'm the one who said if Ms. Hartman was willing to give you a leg up you should at least talk to her. If I'd known..."

"Hey, don't worry about it. You're not responsible for the things I do, Matt."

"I guess not. So, was that woman - what was her name?"

"Jenny." Jenny'd probably take her head off for that, but she wasn't here to do so.

"Jenny, right. Was she just being facetious about the mammoth bit, or...?"

"Matt, don't."

"Sorry, but I can't help but remember that our dear baby brother had a poster of a mammoth once and I noticed the resemblance to that... thing."

"I doubt Julian's poster was anatomically accurate - and don't get any dirty ideas from that," she added when his eyebrows shot up. "It was just an oversized elephant. Probably the result of some type of cross-breeding. Remember how Julia used to talk about ligers, how they were bigger than both lions and tigers, even though they were half lion and half tiger?" Julia was Julian's twin and their baby half-sister.

"You know I can tell when you're bullshitting me."

"_You_ know I can't tell you what's going on whether I know or not. Or whether or not I want to."

"I just want to know what a theoretical physicist is doing running about after an escaped elephant."

"So do I, honestly. Bad luck, I suppose."

"That's ridiculous."

"Yeah." She looked away and saw Stephen driving by, with a woman in his car. What the hell? "Gotta go. I'll call you, yeah?"

"Ashley!" he called after her, but she ignored him, running to see just what was going on.

* * *

Everyone recognized the woman but her. Helen Cutter. When Ashley realized who she was, she had to fight the urge to hit Stephen over the head for being stupid. What did he think he was doing with this woman?

Nick seemed to agree, though Ashley thought he was being a bit harsh when he fired the younger man. Stephen seemed truly convinced that Helen could help them. Nick snapped, "If you really believe Helen's here to help, then you're madder than she is," before stalking off.

"I knew Nick wouldn't listen," Helen observed non-chalantly. Then she looked in the direction of Abby, Connor, and Ashley, her eyes meeting Ashley's. There was curiosity in that sharp brown gaze, curiosity and mild amusement, but underneath was a deep coldness that made Ashley very, very uncomfortable. It was only her second time seeing eyes like that, but you didn't forget what it was like to stare into the eyes of a sociopath. Then Helen got back in the car, and she and Stephen left.

"What's he thinking?" said Connor.

"He's not," Abby stated.

Ashley shrugged. "She's playing him, I'd bet anything on it," she said.

"The question is, what can we do about it?" Abby wondered.

"Probably nothing," Connor said, shaking his head. "We'd better get back to the ARC."

* * *

Later, Ashley was in the lower levels of the ARC, not far from the gym, when she saw Stephen storming down the corridor. "What happened now?" she asked, noting that his lower lip was bleeding.

"Nick and I had another argument and he punched me," Stephen said simply, but she could see the frustration and anger in his eyes.

"Stephen, what are you doing with Helen? Even I know she's not to be trusted."

He ignored that and asked a question of his own. "Do you really think what we do is right?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean the lying, the cover-ups. Do you really think we should do that?"

Today was apparently her day to deal with anti-establishment viewpoints. "Stephen, I'm not really the one to ask about that."

"Why not?" he pressed, frowning.

She hesitated for a second before deciding to go with the truth. "Because I've been working in top-secret stuff since before I left university. It may not be right, morally speaking, but it's necessary. At least right now."

He stared at her, and she could see that his emotions were near to hitting fever pitch. "God, not you too," he spat out before turning away and storming off.

"Nice talking to you too," Ashley said dryly, staring after him. Wasn't honesty supposed to be the best policy by his standards? All she'd done was be honest with him.

_Yeah, honest about why lying is a good thing. There's definitely some contradictory shit in that, Ash_, the part of her that sounded most like Matt said. She shook her head, leaning against the wall. She stared off into space, thinking. About Matt and Stephen, who would probably get on if they ever met. About how this job was turning out to be even crazier than her last. And about Helen, about those cold calculating eyes. _Do any of us really know what she may be capable of? _

Connor found her like that about a half hour later. "Ashley?"

She jumped, then turned to look at him. "What, Connor?"

"We - Cutter and I - just set a trap for the spy. You want to come catch whoever it is?"

"Sure." It beat letting her mind continue to chase itself in circles, if nothing else.

* * *

45 minutes later, Ashley decided that Connor had a rubbish sense of humour. He'd picked a church as the set-up point for the drama of it? What was he, insane?

And then there was something about his ex, Caroline, stealing Abby's pet lizard, Rex. Her _prehistoric_ pet lizard. As Nick said, "What kind of girl steals your lizard?" But since Rex was no ordinary lizard... Caroline couldn't know, could she? Maybe it was her paranoia showing, but there just seemed to be too many weird things going on about now for her to dismiss any of them.

Abby and Connor had gotten bored by now and were singing from a hymnal. Ashley and Nick exchanged an exasperated look, but neither of them were bothered enough by the singing to ask the two to stop. They weren't that bad, Ashley noted, particularly Abby.

She took out her mobile, looking through her text messages. Micah had sent a few asking her advice on what he should try next as far as getting Paula back. She rolled her eyes at the increasingly desperate tone of the messages. **If you want her back, you have to do it yourself. I said you screwed up even when I was your rebound shag. Though why you termed it that when you were the one who ended your relationship... I wasn't seeing anyone, so I certainly wasn't on the rebound**. She sent the message just as the door opened.

They looked over the top of the pew they were hiding behind as SAS men trooped in - with Jenny. "It's Jenny," Connor said, his shock clear even as he snapped photos. She assumed the photos were for evidence later.

Ashley had an odd feeling that something wasn't right, but she didn't have time to say anything before Nick strode up the aisle to where Jenny stood and held a gun to her head, demanding to know who she was working for. Ashley found herself wondering if Nick was really capable of killing Jenny if she didn't talk. Somehow she didn't think he could.

And she didn't think he should. Because she'd figured out what was wrong. If Jenny was the spy, why had she brought the SAS? Didn't they have proof that the spy had access to mercenaries? It didn't make sense. Unless...

Jenny was trying to explain that she'd gotten a call that there'd be an anomaly here. Nick demanded to know who had called her, though it was clear he didn't believe her. "Leek," the brunette said angrily. "It was Leek who sent me."

Nick turned back to Ashley, Connor, and Abby. "We've got to get back to the ARC." He ran out and Connor and Abby followed. Ashley glanced back at Jenny.

"What the hell is going on here?" Jenny snapped.

"Short version? Leek's betrayed all of us and set you up to take the fall for him," Ashley said before taking off after the others.

"So that excuses Cutter putting a gun to my head?"

Ashley heard her, but didn't turn back. She'd be pissed if she was the PR woman too, but now was not the time to be nursing grudges. "Yell at Nick later, get to the ARC now," she called over her shoulder.

* * *

When they got back to the ARC, they learned that while they were gone, Leek had set a future predator on Lester. Ashley, who'd read the files on the future predators, immediately wanted to know just how the hell Leek had gotten ahold of one. Not that the answer to that was the most important thing. Right now, they needed to know where Leek was.

Connor tried to access Leek's personal file, but wasn't having any luck. Nick finally suggested he try the word 'anomaly' as a password. Connor initially scoffed at the idea, saying it was far too easy, but when he tried it, it worked.

It turned out that in a way he'd been right about it being too easy. 'Anomaly' did open Leek's file, but it also set off a bomb planted in the small truck that had been parked in the open space of the ARC, near the ADD. Everyone ran out except for Nick and Connor, who tried to defuse the bomb. They managed to do so, to everyone's relief.

Once the bomb was defused and everyone returned, Connor discovered that the neural clamp Leek had been using to control the future predator operated on radio signals. He traced the signal to Leek's location, but Lester said that he would go, taking the SAS with him. They (meaning Nick, Jenny, Abby, Connor, and Ashley) were to remain at the ARC. _Like little kids_, Ashley thought angrily.

Connor, however, decided to use his time wisely, and used the same method he'd used to track down Leek to find Caroline. He, Abby, Ashley, and Nick were perfectly happy to go, though Jenny pointed out that they were supposed to stay at the ARC. However, when she realized the others were going to go, she relented and came along.

Jenny'd had the right of it in the end though. Because when they got there, they were captured by Leek's mercenaries, one of whom knocked Nick out. They were taken to some sort of bunker, where Leek - and Helen - were waiting for them. They looked around and saw that they were surrounded by creatures of both the prehistoric and future varieties, held in laser-barred cages. _Well, this is bad_, Ashley thought.


	10. Mortality Rate

Disclaimer: Ashley and Daniel are mine, Lyle belongs to the author fredbassett and is used with permission. All other characters belong to the owners of Primeval.

_**Chapter 10 - Mortality Rate:**_ While they were still reeling from the shock, they were shuffled off to cells. Nick and Jenny were taken in one direction, while Ashley, Abby, and Connor were taken in another. Ashley wasn't quite scared yet, but she was starting to feel a little sick. This place reminded her of the lower levels of the Tower, and that brought back memories that, in this time and place, she really didn't need to be dealing with.

They hadn't been in the cell long when Leek came back, with Connor's ex Caroline in tow. It turned out that Caroline had been in Leek's pay all along, dating Connor in an attempt to get close to him, using that closeness to undermine the team. She'd also given him Rex.

Abby's hatred of the woman exploded and the two of them got into a catfight. Leek watched them with a sick glee in his face, while Connor got himself injured in an attempt to break up the fight.

"Thanks," Caroline said.

"I didn't do it for you," Connor snarled.

Leek left them alone, and Ashley moved to sit with Caroline, who looked utterly lost. "Get it together, Caroline. We'll need all our wits about us to get out of this," she hissed at the other woman.

"They'll just leave me here," Caroline murmured dully.

"No they won't." Ashley didn't believe Connor and Abby could be so callous. "Even if they moight consider it, I won't let them. Strength in numbers, and I wouldn't leave anyone to that rat bastard anyway."

The hope that flashed through Caroline's eyes at Ashley's words disappeared as men came into the cell and dragged them out, bringing them to the room they'd seen first, with the captive animals. They were soon joined by Jenny.

"Where's Cutter?" Connor asked.

"With Helen," Jenny said. There was a haunted look in her eyes, and Ashley suspected it wasn't just the immediate danger that had caused it, but there was no time to pry as Leek released the animals, clearly setting the five of them up for what Ashley thought of as execution in the Roman Coliseum style. Modernized of course – the Coliseum hadn't had laser cages.

Sarcasm wouldn't help them out of this, though, so she tried to shut that part of her down as Abby decided to go semi-suicidal on them, staring down a Smilodon. It was the same one from Ashley's first case with the team, clearly not so dead after all. Surprisingly, Abby's martial arts worked on the giant cat, giving them a chance to get the hell out of there.

* * *

Wandering through the halls, they were nearly crushed by a giant herbivore. One of Leek and Helen's men had been; Ashley took his sidearm while Jenny relieved him of his rifle. "Can you shoot that thing?" Ashley asked. The PR woman's only response was a disdainful shrug. They found out she could a little later. They'd found an escape route – and Rex, as it happened – and one of the men had found them. Ashley was climbing out and didn't have a chance to turn before Jenny took him out.

"My friends liked pony rides. I preferred clay pigeons," was all she said in response to Connor's impressed comment about her shooting skills. Despite the situation, Ashley grinned.

Outside, there was nothing to do but wait. Caroline had redeemed herself slightly by saving Rex, making the wait a little less tense, but not by much. The tension level shot up much higher, however, when Lieutenant Lyle and his men arrived. "What's going on?" Jenny demanded.

"Lester sent Hart to deal with some giant worm on a beach, and now your boss thinks Cutter's wife told Hart to come here. We're going in to get him and Cutter." Then the SAS soldiers disappeared into the bunker. Ashley looked at Jenny.

"Am I the only one who has a really bad feeling about that?"

She wasn't, she could tell by the looks on the faces of her coworkers. Even Caroline seemed to be able to tell things weren't right.

And, of course, they were right, just when none of them wanted to be. That was very clear when all of the SAS men returned – but with only one of the men they'd gone to save.

* * *

Stephen was buried in the same cemetery as several of the Torchwood dead had been - or where their grave markers were, at any rate. Had she been feeling more herself, Ashley might have wondered if this was the designated burial ground for people working in Special-Ops, but she wasn't in the mood to make sarcastic observations, even if they were only in her head.

What had been the point? Stephen had died because the controls to the room with the animals had been broken. A stupid accident, or at least that's what it seemed to be. He'd sacrificed himself, and she supposed that did have a point, but when it was an accident that made the sacrifice necessary... Somehow, that just made it worse, to her way of thinking.

She was sad about his death, but the sorrow was mixed with guilt. Not because she thought she could have done anything if she'd been there - she knew better that that - but because Stephen's death seemed to have finally cracked the numbness she'd felt ever since Canary Wharf, the odd detachment that she'd been so unnerved by. And she was relieved. A man she'd liked was dead, and part of her could be nothing other than relieved that his death had shaken her from her own type of PTSD. How sick was that?

She felt like she shouldn't be standing with the others, so she walked away from them as the funeral ended, looking for one grave in particular. Another grave, a slightly older one. She'd been unable to go to this funeral - the eleven survivors who'd decided against retcon had been undergoing psych evaluations during the funerals - but she'd visited several times since.

DANIEL MORAN, the stone read, followed by dates of birth and death, and then a Gaelic inscription. She kept meaning to look it up, but she never did. Part of her preferred the mystery; it reminded her of how he used to say things to her in Gaelic and then tease her when she got mad about not understanding him.

But thinking about that hurt, so she turned her head away, her gaze landing on Nick. He stood by a random grave, staring at something in his hand. A moment later, he let scraps of paper fall from his hand, to be scattered by the wind. The bleak look she could see in his eyes was almost painfully familiar. She'd seen it in Ianto's eyes the night he'd told her about Lisa; hell, she'd seen it in her own reflection the day she'd seen the list of the Canary Wharf dead. And because she recognized the look, she knew what it was Nick had ripped up.

She looked at Dan's grave again. Really, she didn't know why she'd stopped. Dan wasn't here; thanks to Torchwood regs, even his body wasn't here, just an empty coffin under the dirt. Graves were just to comfort the living, and she found no comfort here. But as she turned to go, a glint of silver caught her eye. Something was tucked away amongst the dying flowers. What was it?

As she bent to pick it up, Jenny called, "Ashley, come on, we've got an anomaly." Ashley snatched the unknown pbject before hurrying to the silver SUV and getting in.

In the car, she opened her hand, looking at what she'd grabbed. It was a chain with two dog tags on it. One had the name Daniel Moran, and the other had the name William Moran. Daniel's father. Daniel had worn these dog tags; for God's sake, he'd never taken them off. She'd assumed they were still on his body, lying frozen in some hidden-away morgue. What the hell were they doing here?

But it hadn't been the dog tags glinting. They were dull metal, and it wasn't a sunny day. Not enough light for them to glint. It was the third thing on the chain that had done that. It was a silver claddagh ring, something that didn't belong on this chain.

It too had belonged to Daniel. "A Moran tradition," he'd said. "The oldest son uses it as an engagement ring. My great-grandfather started it." He'd told her the day she'd seen it, in a clear box on the mantlepiece, and she'd asked him why he had it. But it had always been in that box; he'd never worn it on his dog tag chain.

What was going on? Who could have left the chain on the grave? She had a theory, and she didn't like it. Torchwood didn't release bodies; all funerals were empty-casket and the bodies were stored in hidden morgues. It made it easy to fake someone's death if the powers-that-be so chose. Was Dan still alive? If he was, had he been the one to leave the chain at the grave as a way of telling her that?

She didn't know. But she was going to find out. If Dan was still alive, caught up in some shadowy actions, then she had to know.

* * *

The newest grave in the cemetery was visited twice more that day. First, a woman with short brown hair came, leaving an ancient shell on top of the mound of dirt. She was accompanied by a group of men, all of whom had the same face.

Another woman came later, after night had fallen. Except for the length of the hair, she was identical to the first.

"I'm sorry, Stephen. I didn't know how far she was going to take this. But she's going to pay. I promise you that."

A/N: Sorry it's short; I figure no one reading this really needs a transcript of the series 2 finale. The important sutff for the plot was here, at any rate. And luckily this is the last episode rewrite; totally AU from here on out. Also, for anyone interested, there are other fics set in this universe - it's a multi-crossover series, and all fics are listed in my profile.


	11. Lockdown

Disclaimer: If it was mine, I wouldn't need to be job-hunting.

_**Chapter 11 - Lockdown :**_ Ashley was pretty sure she wasn't really supposed to be part of the field team, but after the Triceratops incident, everyone seemed to assume she was. It probably should have annoyed her, but it didn't. It wasn't like she had anything else to do; she'd hit a dead end with the reality problem.

Cutter was mad at her over that. She'd tried to explain that she was at a disadvantage, which she was. First of all, they didn't have the faintest clue how he'd gotten to this reality, and until they found Helen, they weren't likely to. If, of course, they found the Helen he'd been with, which wasn't a certainty.

But he didn't seem to see that. And so having to do field work with him was rather awkward, but she was learning to deal with it. Especially since Claudia was still cold towards her. Connor wanted to know what the hell she'd done to get both of them so irritated, but she never answered him. Stephen and Abby didn't ask; they simply avoided being in close proximity to any two of the three (considering that Cutter and Claudia didn't get on either) whenever possible. It really was ridiculous.

So the fact that they were all gathered around the newest anomaly wouldn't have been a pleasant situation even if it hadn't been pouring rain. The rain just made it all the worse. Especially since there didn't seem to be any point to their being here. The anomaly was quiet, and none of them felt like standing around and getting more soaked than they were already.

When Claudia detached herself from the others to call Lester and tell him what had been going on, Ashley followed. She couldn't do anything about Cutter's attitude, but maybe she could apologize to Claudia and lower the overall tension level a little bit. Maybe.

"Stafford, what do you want?" Claudia said sharply once she'd hung up with Lester.

"What did Lester say?" Ashley said, stalling.

"We're leaving."

"Oh. That's good. Look, Claudia..."

She never finished that sentence, because something sharp suddenly buried itself in her throat and she went down, noting through rapidly fading vision that Claudia had collapsed as well.

* * *

"What the hell happened?" Ashley muttered as she rolled over, trying to think past the pounding in her head.

"Don't know," said a voice that sounded like the speaker felt as bad as Ashley did. Raising her head a little, Ashley peered through her bangs - she really needed to get them cut again - to see Claudia pushing herself off the floor. The other woman looked at Ashley, her face pale and a little strained. Ashley figured she didn't look any better.

Understandable, considering both of them had been sedated. "And here I thought once would be it for me," she muttered.

"What?"

"Getting abducted."

Claudia frowned. "This has happened to you before?"

"Well, it was because I was with Jack, my boss. He's ticked off a lot of people in his time."

"Right. What exactly is it Torchwood does again?"

"Sorry, I may have a drug hangover, but that's not enough to get me to slip up on that."

"Except for the comment about having been abducted before."

Ashley reddened slightly. "That's my bad habit of talking to myself coming back to bite me - again."

"I see. Well, it can't be the same people again, right?"

"No, they're... No. It wouldn't be." Ashley frowned, trying to think through her headache. "If you worked for Torchwood, this would be easier."

"What would be easier?"

"Figuring out what the hell's going on. As it is, I just don't know enough about the anomaly project to figure out who might be hacked off at the group enough to pull this kind of stunt. Have you run into anyone, or has Lester mentioned anyone?"

Claudia frowned, probably having the same problem concentrating that Ashley was. "No, not that I can think of."

"Because even if Lester had, he'd never share with anyone else, would he?"

"No, I don't think so. Not if he didn't think he had to for some reason."

"Yeah."_ Just like Yvonne_. God, she'd hated that blonde bitch. Almost as much as she'd been attracted to her when she'd first joined the Institute. But mental ranting about her original boss, while always fun, wasn't exactly making good use of what mental faculties she had at the moment. And in the current situation, she needed to be making good use of them.

* * *

They'd been silent for a while when the door to their cell banged open. Two people walked in, a tall young man with a blond buzz cut and a hunting rifle and a young woman with long brown hair. Neither of them looked that old – younger than Ashley, who was 26. The woman's dark eyes, however, held that gleam that one only saw in the eyes of fanatics of some sort or other. _Damn it all to hell, what have we gotten tangled in? _Ashley wondered.

"Who are you?" Claudia demanded. Ashley was willing to let the other woman ask; she was busy enough studying their 'visitors', trying to get a read on them. It was times like this that she almost wished she was telepathic, like Micah's fiancée Paula, but she knew enough about the red-haired American's struggle with the ability that she could never quite want to be able to be a true mind reader.

The brunette glared at Claudia. "My name is Valerie, and we're going to make absolutely sure you can't hurt any more animals."

"We're not hurting them," Claudia said placatingly. "We're sending them somewhere more like their natural habitats. It's all to help them."

"Liar!" she shrieked. "I know better than that!" Her eyes narrowed. "And you're going to pay, make no mistake about that." Then she left, her blond enforcer trailing in her wake.

"Well, this is just bloody fantastic," Ashley muttered. Claudia glared at her.

"I don't think sarcastic comments are going to help us, Stafford," she snapped. Ashley scowled, before deciding enough was enough.

"All right, that's it."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm sorry, all right? I'm sorry I treated this situation like a puzzle when it's clearly much more than that to you. I didn't know you were close to Cutter, and I didn't mean to be insulting. But I have to be objective if I'm to function properly, and looking at the situation as an academic puzzle helps me to do that!"

Claudia's eyes narrowed. "Well, maybe if you were a bit less objective and a bit more human, you'd know how to be sensitive. Do you think anyone on the team isn't upset over losing Nick? His replacement is just that, but you wouldn't know or care, would you?"

"I do care, thanks very much, and do you think Nick's any happier about being a 'replacement'? What with the way you lot dance around him, it's a miracle he hasn't just quit!"

"You don't get it."

"Try me."

"No. It's none of your business."

And that said it all, and it made Ashley feel worse. She'd seen the look in Claudia's eyes before, she knew what it meant. Claudia and the other Nick had either been more than friends or heading that way. Well, that certainly explained most of the woman's attitude toward this whole mess.

It made Ashley think. She was willing to bet Claudia and Nick hadn't made it far, and that Claudia was torturing herself now over things left unsaid, undone. It made her mind turn to Dan, to her own repressed feelings. They both had dangerous jobs, and they could lose each other at any time. Maybe she'd been a fool for pushing him away. She decided then and there that if they got out of this, she was going to talk to Dan and find out just what they had between them.

* * *

"So, what's the psycho got planned for us?" Ashley asked the man who was bringing them food. She was hoping to distract him, and it worked.

"None of your business," he snarled.

"Oh, but punishment's much better when the prisoner knows what's coming. Means they can imagine it better and are even more terrified. Trust me, I know. I've pulled the trick myself."

When she saw his cocky demeanor fall away, replaced by eagerness at the thought of making things worse for her and Claudia, she almost laughed. She'd guessed he was an idiot, and now she'd been proven right. God, stupid people were easy to manipulate. Yvonne had been right about that one.

"She's going to feed you to her poor tiger, the one you people screwed with to make a saber-tooth out of." _Oh great. Roman execution 2.0_, Ashley thought.

"You're joking," Claudia said, trying to make it sound as though she believed her own words. The boy heard the fear in her tone and smirked, getting into the idea of mental torture.

"Nope," he drawled, with a self-satisfied tone. "It'll eat you, but you'll be dead by then. First it rips you apart, with its claws, see, but slowly, so you last a long – "

When all his attention focused on Claudia, Ashley acted, just as she'd planned to all along. She leapt onto the boy – and why hadn't they shackled them? She was glad of it, but the incompetence made her shake her head – bringing him to the floor and slamming his forehead into the ground. She relieved him of his knife and gun, tossing the knife to Claudia. The civil servant frowned.

"Why didn't you mention this little plot?"

"I didn't know if they were listening. Now come on!" Claudia nodded before reaching for the man's keys.

"I think you forgot these," she said blandly. Ashley blinked, then grinned.

"Well, it's a good thing you're here then."

The security in the place was truly awful, and they nearly managed to get to an exit before they were caught. The only reason they even were caught was bad luck – Valerie happened to turn the corner and nearly walk into them. She was holding a tranquilizer gun which she quickly pointed at them, but Ashley pointed the handgun at her. During the standoff, Claudia managed to slip around them to the exit. The opening door distracted Valerie, and Ashley hit her over the head with the butt of the gun – she didn't want to shoot her when it wasn't necessary – and went to meet Claudia at the door.

"Very nice," she said. Then she frowned and went back to the unconscious girl, searching her pockets until she found a mobile phone. She held it up when Claudia looked like she was about to question her. "We need to contact the others."

They got far enough away from the building they'd been held in to avoid recapture, though neither of them was quite sure where they were. It was the middle of nowhere, nothing but fields, and Ashley wasn't sure if the phone would work, but it did.

"Tosh speaking."

"Hey, Tosh, it's Ashley. Do me a favor?"

"What have you done this time?"

"Remember what happened with me and Jack about two months after you lot came over from Cardiff?"

"You got yourself kidnapped again? You really are impossible, Ashley."

"I know, look, just trace the cell I'm using so I know where the hell we are."

"We?"

"I'm not the only one who got snatched."

"Oh, lovely."

"Tosh…"

"All right, all right." Faintly, Ashley heard the clacking of keys before Tosh rattled off coordinates. Ashley thanked her before hanging up and calling Stephen.

Forty-five minutes later, they were headed back to London. Becker, Lyle, and their teams were busy securing the place where they'd been held, but no one else had to stay. Claudia sat next to Ashley, staring out her window.

"So shall we call a truce?" Ashley asked quietly. Claudia glanced at her.

"Fine. Why not?"

* * *

That night, Ashley pressed Dan's doorbell quickly, before she could lose her nerve. He opened the door, his eyes confused. "Ashley?"

"Hi. Um, can I come in?"

"Yeah, sure," he said, stepping aside to let her by. She glanced around his living room curiously; she'd never been there before. Her eyes landed on a clear box sitting on the mantel. It was hard to tell from here, but she thought it was a ring.

"What's that?" she asked, pointing to it. He smiled faintly, walking over to get it. He handed it to her, and she saw that it was a silver claddagh ring, an Irish wedding band.

"It's been in my family for years. The oldest boy uses it for an engagement ring. But you didn't come here to ask about jewelry on my mantel."

"No, no I didn't." She paused, trying to think. Finally she said, "You remember that night at Tommy's, right after I got my new assignment?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well… What if I told you I changed my mind?"

"I'd ask why."

"Because… Because I know a woman who never said how she really felt about a man, and now she's lost him, maybe forever. I don't know if all we've got is a physical attraction, but I don't want to spend the rest of my life not knowing."

Dan studied her for a moment, his face impassive. She held his gaze, refusing to show how scared she was that he'd reject her. But then he grinned, a wide, mischievous grin that wasn't quite like any she'd seen from him, before closing the distance between them and bringing his lips down on hers, wrapping his arms around her waist.

When they broke for air, he whispered in her ear, "I knew you'd see it my way." She thought about yelling at him, but decided to just kiss him again.

A/N: First, sorry I took so long. I had nothing but writer's block for this chapter. But while that was going on, I wrote out the rest of the story longhand. Some of it's typed, but not all of it. However, I'm working on fixing that, so this fic should be finished by the end of the year. It's dependent on the end of another fic, for reasons I'll explain then, but it should be the end of the year. Unless the muses go AWOL.


	12. CrossReality Communication

Disclaimer: I'm not wasting my time on this again.

_**Chapter 12 – Cross-Reality Communication:**_ Ashley tacked the charts onto her corkboard and stood back, frowning at them. She'd been staring at anomaly data for hours, and had found nothing.

She was certain the answer was here, somewhere, in these graphs and readings. She just couldn't see it.

"Does playing rock music help you concentrate?" a voice asked. She looked around. It was Nick.

She turned off her boom box. "Yes, actually. What's up?"

"I was wondering how it was going."

Ashley grimaced. "Not well."

"What's the problem?" His voice was almost even, but she could hear the irritation in it. It made her have to bite back her own temper.

"It's not so bloody easy, you know," she shot back. OK, so maybe she hadn't quite managed to control her tongue so well.

"I just asked a question."

"You've been hacked off at me for weeks, Cutter. I'm trying to figure this out, but without knowing what that wife of yours did, it could take a while!"

"I thought you were an expert."

"Do you have any idea how many other worlds there are? I could send you off today with a device that would let you jump realities forever, but the chances of you finding the right one are pretty much nil."

"But your way - once you work it out - will send me straight home?"

"It should. This stuff, though... It's unpredictable. Yes, I'm an expert, but that's not saying as much as it would be in most fields. We just don't know enough."

Nick shook his head. "What do you know?"

"We know they exist and that we can travel between them. We're trying to find out if there's a finite number or if more keep forming."

"Sound fascinating. Have you ever jumped realities?"

"No. Jack doesn't allow us to work with the travel aspect for practical application. Your situation's a special case, because we have a responsibility to put things right."

"Is there a reason for that?"

"Jack's... Well, he's had a lot of experience in some unusual stuff. He ended some of our projects right off when he came in. Said they were too dangerous."

"What were you doing?"

"God, everything. There were teams playing with realities, time, some really abnormal biology, and a lot of technology we didn't really understand."

"Should I believed that you lot haven't destroyed the world yet?"

"Probably, yeah."

"Wonderful."

"Well, we've been stopped, so relax."

"Your plan for me isn't going to destroy the world, is it?"

"What plan?" He gave her a look and she laughed.

"Just kidding," she assured him. "That's one of my key goals - not destroying the world, that is."

"Good to know."

"So are we good?"

"Sorry?"

"Are you going to keep on being mad at me?"

"Ah. No."

"Good. That should lower the tension level." She grinned at him.

Nick shook his head. "Stafford, has anyone ever told you that you have an odd sense of humor?"

"Quite often, actually. And would you please use my first name? Everyone else does."

"Fine. Ashley then."

"_Thank_ you," she said dramatically.

Nick shook his head again.

* * *

After Nick left, Ashley decided to try something else. She'd hoped to be able to avoid this particular topic, but it seemed that she was stuck.

Since most of the work on actual cross-reality travel had ended, Ashley and the other scientists were forced to find other avenues to explore. One of those new paths was the idea of simply communicating with other realities. To that end, they'd developed a program that was designed to reach alternate Torchwoods.

They weren't sure if it worked. Jack had been wary of using the program just for the heel of it, and Ashley more or less agreed. Even if she thought Jack didn't always understand the scientific need for experimentation. However, Jack had also given her carte blanche to do basically whatever she deemed necessary to get Nick and his counterpart back to their proper places. His only rule was that she had to tell him before opening up a portal to another reality.

She put the disk into her laptop, uploading the program. It didn't take long, and then she opened up what looked like an instant messaging window. Michael Stone, the head of the Computer Science Division, had suggested that they use a format that they were familiar with for the communication interface. So they'd chosen an IM window.

**Hello?** She typed, holding her breath.

Nothing. She waited, but to no avail. She was about to close the window when a message appeared.

**Who is this?**

Ashley froze. Then she typed, **Ashley Stafford. I work for Torchwood London.**

**No you don't.**

**Maybe not in the world you know. I'm in an alternate reality.**

**What? But the Doctor said…**

**The Doctor? Jack's friend?**

**Jack's alive?**

**Yes, he's the Director of Torchwood. **

**Oh. Your world's not mine then.**

**Obviously. **

**No, the world I'm in isn't mine either. I was trapped here after the Canary Wharf disaster.**

**The what?**

**Yvonne Hartman and her people ripped a hole in the universe and let Cybermen and Daleks through. I fell into the hole just before it closed. I've been trying to find a way back.**

**Who are you?**

**Rose Tyler.**

**Oh. Here you're still with the Doctor.**

**And you transferred to the Belfast office.**

**How'd you wind up with Torchwood?**

**My dad's alive here and he's in charge of it.**

**Oh. Well, maybe you can help me out anyway. I'm looking for one reality in particular. A coworker of mine somehow got sent to this reality while his counterpart ended up… Well, there's no way to be sure, but I think it was a witch between just the two realities.**

**How'd it happen?**

**Did you ever hear of anomalies?**

**Yeah, we've a whole division on the things. You want to talk to Nick Cutter?**

Ashley almost laughed. If she were the sort who believed in destiny and such, she'd think that Nick was fated to be involved with the anomalies.

**I might. Has he said anything odd lately, claiming the world's gone wrong?**

**No, why? **

**Because the switched person's our world's Cutter – and another one from God knows where.**

**And what? You hoped ours had been switched?**

**Maybe.**

**Sorry. **

**Me too. After all, I'm sure you wish I was from your reality. **

**Yeah, I do. What're you going to do when you find the right reality?**

**Switch them back.**

**How?**

**Don't know yet. **

**When you find out, let me know. OK?**

**I'll do my best.**

* * *

After ending the conversation and noting the coordinates of Rose's world, Ashley sat back, contemplating the situation. As a way of tracing Nick's reality, this method certainly left something to be desired. It relied on pure chance, for one thing. And with the number of realities, the odds of her finding the right one were… bad.

On the other hand, right now it was the only thing that was working. She certainly didn't intend to stop searching for other ways to get Nick home, but even slow progress was better than no progress at all. And truthfully, at the moment she was fresh out of other ideas.

A/N: I'm writing an alternate reality fic in the Whoniverse, I figured I had to pay homage to the most important alternate reality in the New Who. Plus, didn't you ever wonder how Rose learned to jump realities?


	13. Cardiff Calling

Disclaimer: If it was mine, I wouldn't need to be job-hunting.

_**Chapter 13 - Cardiff Calling: **_In the weeks following the bunker disaster, the entire team was subdued. Leek's betrayal would have left them shaken, but to have it cost Stephen's life... Well, they were still reeling from the shock. Nick, Ashley knew, was shattered by Helen's 'revelation' that he'd been right about the timeline change. Ashley had offered to help him find out how to fix it, but he was blowing her off. "We've caused enough damage already. I won't make it worse," he'd explained. She rather thought he was trying to be noble at the risk of losing his mind, but she figured that in the end it was his choice.

She was convinced, however, that Helen had been lying. It seemed to be all the woman did, for one thing. Moreover, if the timeline had been altered, she was sure there'd have been a paradox by now. In which case everyone would be forced to believe Nick - the world ripping itself apart wasn't something one could ignore. But she could tell he wasn't in any mindset to listen to her, so she let it go for now. Besides, she had other things on her mind.

Someone was following her. She could feel it. The question was who, and why. She'd thought Daniel, at first, but no. It wasn't his style; too cliché. She was hoping it was a reporter trying for an angle on the project. That had happened once, back at Torchwood, and while inconvenient, such a situation was more or less innocuous. Other situations were unlikely to be.

One night she was getting off her bike, going to her flat, when she heard a sound behind her. Footsteps. She froze, trying to locate the source.

"Ashley." That voice had her spinning around, whipping her gun out as she did so.

"Helen," she said evenly, the gun trained on the other woman's chest.

"You don't want to shoot me."

"You sure about that?"

"Yes." Helen stepped fully out of the shadows, and Ashley's eyes narrowed. Helen looked different, and it wasn't the hair that had suddenly grown past her shoulders. The woman was a time traveler, there was hardly anything odd about that. No, it was the eyes.

When she'd first seen Helen that day on the motorway, the coldness of the other woman's eyes had unsettled her. But now Helen didn't have that look. The Helen Ashley had seen that day was a sociopath; this Helen was not. It was that simple. But people did not just stop being sociopaths. Therefore something was wrong.

She lowered the gun but didn't holster it. "What do you want?"

"You were right."

"Right about what?"

"Nick _is_ in the wrong reality."

"Two weeks ago you said it was a timeline change."

"That wasn't me."

"Of course it -" Ashley began impatiently, before a sudden thought silenced her. It couldn't be... but why not? "That was the Helen from Nick's reality, and you're the Helen from this one. We haven't seen you at all, have we?"

"Not since the future predator incident, no."

"You and your counterpart set up both Nicks, didn't you?"

"Yes."

Of course. Why hadn't she thought of that before? But if it were true, then... "Why reveal yourself now?"

"Stephen's dead because of her. I told her if she wanted revenge on Nick, go right ahead, but leave Stephen alone. She didn't listen." Fury blazed in the dark eyes. "So I'm ruining her grand plan."

"Why'd you do it in the first place?"

"She approached me. In her world, Nick had moved on, and she couldn't stand it. She couldn't handle watching him forget her and turn to someone else."

"Claudia."

"Yes, that was the woman's name. Anyway, she wanted revenge. I wasn't as... driven as she was, but Nick had rejected me too, and I was angry with him. But now, after what happened to Stephen, it's _her_ I want revenge on."

Ashley turned it all over in her head. It made a twisted sort of sense, actually. Which was why she put the gun away. Not that she would trust Helen – any Helen – completely without hard evidence. "All right, prove it."

"And how exactly do you expect me to do that?"

"I need a blood sample."

"Why?"

"I want to be sure you're telling me the truth."

Helen studied her for a moment. "Fine." She took out a knife and two white handkerchiefs. She sliced her hand open and wiped some blood on one of the handkerchiefs, handing it to Ashley. Then she tied the other one around her hand as a makeshift bandage. "Will that do?"

"Yeah."

"Good." She turned and walked away, disappearing into the shadows. Ashley stared after her for a minute before shaking herself and racing inside. She didn't have much time.

She only stayed in her flat long enough to pack a bag and grab her other bits of evidence. That amounted to a blood sample from Nick (which she'd gotten a few days before the bunker) a candid team photo nicked off Connor, and a copy of the photo of Nick and Claudia. She'd 'borrowed' the original and made a copy.

The blood samples were needed for the reality marker test - people from different realities had slight differences in their blood work - while the photos were visual proof if she needed it. Like if Harkness caught her. Which he almost certainly would - there was only one place with the facilities she needed for the test, and that was Torchwood. So she had no choice; she was going to Cardiff.

* * *

She caught a train at midnight and managed to get some sleep en route. When she was near Cardiff, she called Ianto - and got a different voice on the line. A different male voice.

"Um, is Ianto there?"

"Yeah, hang on." There was rustling in the background, and then Ianto's voice came over the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Ianto. So who picked up?"

"Ashley! What's going on?"

"I'm coming for a visit. Who picked up the phone?"

"Um... Jack. It's Jack."

"You're shagging your boss? Damn, Ianto..." She'd known Ianto was bisexual – hell, so was she – but she hadn't expected him to start sleeping with his boss. It was so... not professional, and not Ianto. But then, she wasn't one for casting stones at people's love lives, shocked or not. Which didn't mean she wouldn't tease him. He was one of her best friends, after all; that made teasing mandatory.

"Ashley, what do you want?" he asked tiredly, well aware that he wouldn't be living this down for quite some time.

Ashley sobered as she remembered why she'd called. "I need to get into the Hub."

"What? Why?"

"I'll tell you later. In person."

"What are you playing at?"

"I'm not playing at anything, Ianto. This is serious. Can you get me in or not?"

"I - sure. I can get you in."

* * *

"OK, now what the hell is going on?" Ianto demanded that night as he let her into the Hub. Ashley sighed.

"I want to see if I'm right about Nick being from the wrong reality."

"And you need to come here for that?"

"I've got a test to run. Do you really think I'd find the facilities anywhere else?"

Ianto couldn't argue with that and he didn't bother to try. He just led her to the medical bay, where he left her alone.

It didn't take her long to run the test and the results were what she'd expected. Using her own blood as a template (because she knew she was from this reality), she found that Helen belonged to this reality - and Nick didn't. She needed to tell him, but she wasn't sure he'd listen.

But the test results weren't the only proof she needed, and with Ianto off somewhere, she went looking on her own. The computer system was unattended and in plain sight, and luckily, her old username and password for the Torchwood Archives still worked. She needed the old London files on alternate realities - and more importantly, she needed the files on opening doorways between realities.

"You know, considering what happened the last time one of my people let an outsider in, I really should just shoot you now," said a male voice from behind her. Ashley turned the swivel chair she was sitting in around slowly, not wanting to make any sudden movements in case he had a gun out already.

He didn't, but he was watching her coldly. She'd recognized the voice from the phone call earlier and now that she saw his face she remembered him from personnel files. "Relax, Harkness, I'm not sabotaging anything."

"Ianto vouched for you, so I'll believe that much, Stafford. But for whatever reason, he won't tell me why you are here." He paused, a clear indication for her to elaborate.

She handed him her results from the RM tests and the two photos. "The man in both photos is Nick Cutter. He's also the one who's in the wrong reality."

"Who's the woman?"

Assuming he was talking about Claudia and Jenny, Ashley shrugged and said, "Depends on the reality."

"Oh." Silence for a moment, then - "You know, I would think someone from Torchwood London would have more sense than to mess with alternate realities."

Ashley swallowed hard. She'd been trying not to think about the last time she'd seen realities cross, but Harkness' comment had brought it all flooding back. "You know nothing about it," she snapped.

"I was there for the clean-up. I've faced down Daleks, and while Lisa was working alone, I have an imagination. I can work out what it was like."

"No you can't." She couldn't quite keep her voice steady.

"You sound terrified."

Ashley met his gaze but couldn't speak. He was right. Damn him. Finally she managed to say, "Maybe, but I'll just have to live with it."

Harkness frowned, the coldness in his eyes replaced by curiosity. "Why?"

It was the lack of hostility in the question that she responded to. "Because Nick's my friend, and his situation sucks."

Harkness leaned against one of the desks, studying her. "That's not the the kind of reasoning I'd expect from one of Yvonne's people."

"Yeah, well, there's a reason I stopped being her golden girl."

"You were working on the realities project three years ago and you told her things would go to hell. She didn't believe you and you were transferred out of the department. And you were right."

"Cold comfort, isn't it? So, you've read my file then."

"Yeah. That bother you?"

"No."

"Now that's typical Torchwood One." He actually smiled at her. "Just don't rip the universe apart."

"I'll do my best."

He shook his head and turned to go. Ashley touched the chain around her neck, thinking about what hung from it. "Harkness?"

"Yeah, Stafford?"

She thought about how to word it. "Did you ever hear of there being other survivors of Canary Wharf? People who were declared dead but weren't?"

"Why?"

"I've gotten a sort of message, suggesting that a... friend of mine is still alive."

Harkness sighed. "You're playing a dangerous game if you get involved in this."

"So you have heard something."

"A handful of people were taken as government spooks. Would your... friend be any good for that?"

"Yeah. He would. Thanks."

"Don't thank me, Stafford. I've probably just given you an excuse to commit suicide." With that, he left the room.

Ashley turned back to the computer. She didn't doubt that Harkness was right. Probing into Dan's 'death' probably_ was_ dangerous. But she didn't care. She would do it anyway - just as soon as she figured out how to help Nick get home.

A/N: And so Helen's not always evil and we finally get a few answers.


	14. The Proverbial Cat

Disclaimer: It's not mine.

_**Chapter 14 - The Proverbial Cat:**_ "Nick, we need to talk," Ashley said from the doorway to his office.

Nick glanced up, frowning. "Why? Is something wrong?"

She came in and dropped a few sheets of paper onto his desk. He read over what was written on them and then gave her an incredulous look. "Ashley, what is this?"

"It's proof that Helen was lying." He didn't say anything, just stared at the papers. Finally he looked up at her.

"This isn't my field, Ashley. But if I'm reading this right, it means I really am in the wrong reality, yes?"

"Yeah."

"So what happens now?"

Ashley shrugged. "It's your choice. What do you want to do?"

"Is there a way back?"

"I'm working on it. If you want me to, that is."

"Do you have to ask?"

She shrugged again. "Yeah, I do." She hesitated and then pulled a piece of paper from her pocket. "I thought you might want this," she said, setting it down on his desk.

Nick picked it up, his eyes widening. It was the photo of him and Claudia that he'd ripped up at the funeral. "Where did you get this?"

"I made a copy. Visual evidence to show Harkness - the new Director of Torchwood - when he caught me."

"Caught you?"

"I did go to Cardiff to see a friend, just like I said before, but what I didn't mention was that friend works for Torchwood Cardiff. He got me in to do the tests, but Harkness - that's his home base - ran into me."

"Oh," he said. Then, wondering how she'd managed to make a copy in the first place he asked, "What did you do, pick my pocket?"

Distinctly guilty silence. Nick shook his head, not quite managing to hold back a slight smile. "Right. Well... thanks." He slipped it back into his wallet.

* * *

"So, how's the manual coming?" Ashley asked two weeks later, walking into Nick's office.

Nick put the notebook he'd been writing in aside, giving Ashley his attention. "Do you know how long it takes to write six months' worth of events?"

"Can't say that I do, no," she admitted, leaning against the wall. "Though I will soon; I'll be writing some notes of my own. You can have my job if you'd like, though. Want to try building a Cross-Reality Device?"

"Ah, no, thanks."

"Didn't think so."

"So, how's it coming? The CRD?"

"All right, I guess. It's - " Her mobile rang.

"Are you going to answer that?"

"I may regret it, but yeah." She pulled it from her pocket and flipped it open. "Hello, Ianto. I'm surprised you took so long."

"..."

"Oh, so Harkness kept his mouth shut. Remind me to send him a thank you card. How _did_ you find out then?"

"..."

"Creative."

"..."

"Mm-hmm. Yeah. Look, I don't care. Your boyfriend already told me it was dangerous. I'm going to find out what happened to Dan. You'd do the same in my position."

"..."

"It's cool. You're worried about me. I'll talk to you soon, all right?" She hung up.

"Is everything all right?" Nick asked.

"Yeah. My friend Ianto's just worried about me."

"I could tell. What are you up to?"

"What, besides planning to rip a hole in the universe?"

"Very funny. And yes, besides that."

"I'm trying to track down my supposedly dead boyfriend."

"'Supposedly'?"

"He was declared dead, but I've got reason to believe that was a cover. But if I'm right, I'll wind up playing in governmental grey areas. Which isn't exactly conducive to good health. Ianto has a good reason to be worried."

"So why do it?"

"I love him. Isn't that enough?"

Nick looked at her, then at the open notebook, and finally at the photo he'd taken out of his wallet once again. "Yeah. Yeah, it is." Their eyes met in a moment of perfect understanding, a moment broken by a knock on the open door.

"Are you two having some sort of secret meeting in here?" Jenny asked.

"No," Ashley said easily. Nick closed the manual, but he did so a bit too quickly. The resulting puff of air knocked the photo on his desk to the floor. Jenny, apparently trying to be helpful, picked it up.

Ashley had enough time to think, _Well, that cat's out of the bag. Bloody hell. _Then Jenny's face went dead white. The PR woman's eyes flicked from the photo to Nick and back again, moving so fast that they blurred. Silence stretched as all three of them tried to think of something - _anything_ - to say.

* * *

Jenny stared at the photo in her hand, her mind spinning. This was.. It... She couldn't seem to even think clearly enough to properly react to what she was seeing.

It wasn't her in the photo. It looked like her, but this had never happened. Besides, looking at the woman in the picture was like looking at herself with deliberate mistakes, rather than looking at a mirror or something like that. The other woman had auburn hair that she wore loose, had different taste in clothing, and wore less makeup than Jenny did.

She'd always dismissed Cutter's ramblings about "Claudia Brown", something that had become harder to do in the wake of Helen's comments. But she'd told herself that Helen was crazy and Cutter was eccentric. She didn't need to pay any mind to what they said. But apparently she'd been wrong.

"Sorry I interrupted," she said, her voice strangely calm as she set the photo on the desk. She walked out, needing to get away from both of them.

"Shit," Ashley said.

"That about sums it up," Nick agreed.

"Yeah. I'll be back."

* * *

Catching up to Jenny wasn't hard - the woman could move, even in those high heels, but Ashley in her combat boots was faster. "Jenny!"

"Ashley, I don't want to hear about it."

"I know, but I'm willing to bet you've got the wrong idea."

Jenny's laugh was bitter. "I've just seen proof that Cutter's right and I'm not the person I'm supposed to be. How could I possibly get the wrong idea?"

"Except Nick was wrong. Essentially."

"Meaning what, exactly?"

"Meaning that you're exactly who you're supposed to be. Nick's right; this isn't the world he knows, but that doesn't make this world wrong."

"What are you trying to say?"

"Nick isn't from this reality. Somehow he wound up here and I'm guessing the Nick Cutter who was here originally is in the reality that the Nick we know is from."

"So you're saying they switched places?"

"Basically."

"Why didn't you just say that?"

"I thought I did."

Jenny just shook her head. "So, what are the two of you trying to do? Switch them back?"

"Yeah."

"How do you plan on doing that?"

Ashley shrugged. "A lot of supposedly theoretical science."

"Does anyone else know?"

"Just you, now."

"I take it you don't want me to say anything."

"That would be nice."

"Lester's going to find out eventually."

"'Eventually' being the key word there. And I know that. Nick actually plans to tell him before he goes home. Something about trying to cut down on the general confusion." Ashley smiled. "So it won't be cloak-and-dagger forever."

Jenny frowned. "You're going to have a hell of a time convincing him," she pointed out.

"Maybe you can help us out there."

Jenny considered that for a moment. "Maybe I can."

* * *

Lester stared at Nick, astonished. "I knew you were crazy, Cutter, but this is ridiculous."

"With all due respect," said Ashley in a voice that suggested a complete lack of respect, "it's not. You've seen the proof."

"I've seen blood test results."

"What do you want, to get thrown into the wrong reality yourself?" Nick snapped, making Ashley jump. Jenny, who had just walked into the office, considered leaving but decided to stay in case she could help, as she'd said to Ashley before.

"Is that some kind of threat?" Lester asked.

Nick glared at him. "No, but what exactly would you consider proof, Lester?"

"Something other than eccentric ramblings and tests from a supposedly top secret lab."

This, Nick decided, was hopeless. So without another word, he walked out of Lester's office. He stormed down the corridor, trying to get a hold on his temper.

"Nick." Ashley's voice had him stopping and turning to face her.

"What, Ashley? You don't seriously think he can be talked around, do you?"

"No, though I've left Jenny trying to, and if anyone can pull it off, she can. Either way, as the finished CRD is now sitting in my lab, I thought it was a good time to have a go before Lester tries to stop us."

"That," said Nick, "is the best idea I've heard in weeks."

A/N: No, we're not winding down yet. There's Helen to deal with - and another pesky problem that no one sees coming.


	15. Leap of Faith

* * *

Disclaimer: It's not mine.

_**Chapter 15 - Leap of Faith: **_"Well, this is it," Ashley said, gesturing to a black box-shaped contraption sitting on her table.

"That?" Nick said, unable to keep the scepticism from his voice. Ashley grinned, not taking offence.

"Hey, you don't knock Connor's handheld ADDs for being small, do you?" she said in mock indignation. "Seriously though, bigger isn't always better,. Not in technology at any rate. Based on what I know, this should do the trick."

"What does it do, exactly?"

"Well, like the anomalies, it rips a hole in the fabric of spacetime, but in a different way. That is, it creates a breach in the wall between realities rather than the wall between points in time. It's also harnessed, unlike the anomalies."

Nick blinked. "Why does the fact that all of that made complete sense worry me?"

* * *

"I'm not allowing it."

"James, wouldn't it be better to have the proper Cutter here?" Jenny asked.

"I don't believe this alternate reality nonsense and I don't see why you do."

She thought of the photograph she'd seen, but even the memory was more than a little unsettling. She did not want to discuss it. But after making it clear that she'd previously thought Cutter slightly mad, she couldn't just say she'd changed her mind. "I believe Ashley," she said finally.

"Hmph. Yes, and what made _her_ an expert?"

Jenny said nothing. There wasn't much _to_ say, honestly. She knew James Lester well enough by now to see that he wasn't about to change his mind. She nodded and left the room.

Lester's phone rang as she left. She froze just out his line of sight, listening.

"Are they really? Well, I've no intention of letting them ignore me like that. Stop them."

_Damn! _She really didn't want to get any more involved than she was already, but it looked like she had no choice. She ran for Ashley's lab, going as fast as her heels would allow.

* * *

Ashley was doing the final calibrations on the CRD when someone banged on the lab door. Nick, who had been making last-second additions to the manual for his counterpart, looked up. "Are you going to answer that?"

"No," Ashley said absently.

"Ashley, it's Jenny! Open up! You've got a problem!"

"Then again..." Ashley muttered, running to the door. "What?" she asked when she opened it.

"You forgot the cameras," Jenny said dryly. "Lester knows and he's planning to stop you. I hope you've got everything ready."

"Ashley?" Nick asked.

"Um, hang on, I have to finish the last calibration... Done!" She gestured for Nick to come over to the device, handing him the notebook she'd written - a summary of the past months as well as detailed notes on the CRD, intended for her counterpart or another expert.

"So, I guess I'll be seeing you," she said, grinning.

"Don't take this wrong, but I hope not," he replied.

"Cutter?" said Jenny. "Good luck."

"Thanks." Nick thought for a moment, then said, "Look, Jenny, I - "

She held up a hand, cutting him off. "Don't worry about it, really. I don't understand exactly, but it's fine."

Ashley cleared her throat. "Nick, look. Hit this button exactly when I say and then _don't move_. I don't know if moving will muddle the connection," she explained, her voice brisk and clipped.

"Right," Nick said, nodding.

She stepped away from him, grabbing Jenny's wrist and pulling the other woman to the opposite end of the room. "We want to be a certain distance from the machine," she said when Jenny gave her a questioning look.

When they were a good distance away, Ashley nodded. "OK, Nick, now."

Nick pressed the button, hoping with everything he had that this would work. The last thing he saw before the world dissolved in white light was Ashley and Jenny watching him go.

* * *

Neither Ashley nor Jenny spoke for a moment. Then Ashley took another look at the dials on the CRD. "Oh shit."

"What?" When Ashley didn't respond, she got very nervous. "Ashley!"

"I... I screwed up. One of the calibrations was off."

"What does that mean?"

"In this case? He got through, I think, but... He might not have gotten to the right place, or he might not be the only one in the place he landed, right or otherwise."

Jenny frowned. "But you didn't get him killed, did you?"

"No, at least I'm pretty sure I didn't."

"'Pretty sure'?"

"Well, there's no way to be certain until and if his counterpart comes back."

"Oh God. There's nothing you can do?"

"No. Whatever happens... It's up to other people now."

* * *

Ashley really hated these conferences. UNIT held them twice a year for scientists who worked for UNIT, Torchwood, and other, similar organisations. She disliked dealing with the other scientists; most of them were irritatingly arrogant, thinking that their intelligence put them above everyone else. It made her want to throw one of her stiletto heels at their heads.

And that was another thing. She had to dress up for these things, which always made her grumpy. So she was wearing a crimson blouse, a black pleated skirt, a black suit jacket, and four-inch black stiletto heels. Her choice of colors made her stick out a bit, but she didn't really care.

"Ashley?" She turned at the familiar voice. Micah Trevaine and his fiancée, Paula Ravenwood, were walking towards her.

"Hello, you two," Ashley said brightly. "So, set a date yet?"

"No," Paula admitted. "Things are pretty crazy at home right now, so we're waiting until it settles down."

And with Paula, and her family, crazy things could mean so much more than most people would think. Ashley decided not to ask. "Oh. So why are you guys at this... thing?"

"I'm, uh, presenting," Micah said with an uncertain grin. "A discussion on the biological basis of metaphysical abilities."

"And besides moral support for Micah, as Head of Foreign Affairs at DESI, I really should be here, especially with Director Hasling and Assistant Director Valens tied up."

Ashley shook her head. "Right up your alley then, both of you."

"Ha ha," Micah retorted. "And I hear you've been pretty busy yourself."

"Yeah. I'm trying to get someone back to his reality and find his counterpart from this one."

Paula and Micah exchanged a look. "We had something like that happen a couple of months ago. Cole - my brother-in-law - was sucked through to a different reality that was not only not his world, but apparently nearly a year ahead. Something to do with the technology the Gemini team in that world was messing with. Though from what his counterpart said, and what he said when he got back, the switch might have had some positive effects."

Ashley remembered that Gemini Investigations was what Paula had called her independent Torchwood-esque organisation – today her friend and brother-in-law Cole Turner ran it, seeing as she'd returned to DESI – and nodded. Then she asked, "You don't happen to have the technology, do you?"

Paula grinned. "No, sorry, it was on the other end."

"Damn."

"What, is it not going well then?" Micah asked.

"Well, I had this brief connection with... No, not really."

"You sound like me with a few of my projects," Paula commented.

"I really want to get it done. There's... Well, I just want to see it through," Ashley said, not really wanting to go into detail.

She chatted with Micah and Paula for a little longer before they had to leave for Micah's presentation. "Call me if you need any help. I may have some... tricks up my sleeve," Paula offered, her unusual gold eyes searching Ashley's face. Ashley suspected that the redhead had picked up on some of what she'd left unsaid. Paula always had been too good at that.

"Thanks, but I'm not sure I want to owe you another favor, Ravenwood, considering you have yet to collect on the first."

"I will, eventually," Paula assured her.

_That's what worries me_, Ashley said silently. And even if she didn't want to owe the American a second favor, there were other considerations. The other woman's tricks might be related to her past with the Doctor - not Jack's Doctor, a later incarnation - but she doubted it. And if they weren't anything to do with the Doctor, Ashley really didn't want to know. Aliens and creatures from other times were more than enough secrets for her to keep. She didn't need whatever Paula could do as another one. Paula was even more of a metaphysics expert than Micah, and Ashley knew why Micah was one, and even why Paula was, to an extent. But she didn't want to know just how much either of them might be capable of. And even if she were willing to involve them, how would she explain it?

* * *

Another hour or so passed, in which she tried desperately not to die of boredom or else call Jack and ask if she could get the hell out of here. She was inspecting one of the tables set up - someone from Japan, a Dr. Tanizaki, had made advances in cybernetics - when her mobile rang. The Glenn Miller ringtone told her it was Jack. _Thank God. Maybe I can get out of here. _

"Yeah, Jack?"

"You'd better get down here."

The odd tone of his voice had her worried. "What's going on?"

His answer had her eyebrows shooting into her hairline. "I'm already there," she said and hung up without saying good-bye.

She rushed to her car and stepped on the gas. It was a definite fact that she broke a few speed limits, but after what Jack had said, she didn't give a damn. _Just when I thought things couldn't get crazier... _

End of Act Three

A/N: And so what do you think is going to happen now? All I'll say is that it's one of Lester's nightmares. Oh, and about Nick and Jenny, I just felt there had to be some kind of understanding between them, at the end.


	16. Three of a Kind

Disclaimer: If it was mine, I wouldn't need to be job-hunting.

Act Four: Converging Divergences

_**Chapter 16 - Three of a Kind:**_ "OK, so you said three Nick Cutters just... materialised in one of the labs?" Ashley asked.

"Yep," said Jack, leaning back in his chair. "Oh, and one of them had these." He handed her two notebooks. "I've glanced through them, and I think the one who had them is here on purpose."

"What, did you confiscate all personal belongings?"

"Yeah. He had this too." He tossed her a wallet that she opened absently. She frowned when she saw a photo in there.

"That's Claudia."

"What?"

"The woman in the photo is Claudia Brown. She's the Home Office field agent." She frowned. "Hell, this looks like the picture on Connor's camera." She looked up again as a thought struck her. "Did you have the RM test done yet?"

"I put a rush on it. Results should be back within an hour. One of the others had a wallet too - different woman's picture in it though." He handed it to her. "He also seemed very concerned about giant bugs in the Underground."

"Well, I've no idea what that's about, but the person in this photo is Helen," Ashley said.

"Oh, the crazy time-jumping ex?"

"Yeah. Did the third one have anything?"

"No, He was at home. Not alone though, so he may have problems later. I think he said something about his girlfriend being there." Jack's tone made it clear that he found that amusing.

Ashley shook her head, turning her attention to the notebooks. One was in Nick's writing, but the other... "Hey, that's my writing." She scanned the notes. "Looks like you're right. This Cutter's here on purpose. And 'I' seem to have helped him. Which means the other two are probably here because of some error."

"Well, you'd better fix it then. It's your mistake."

"Technically it wasn't me."

"You're still the resident expert."

"Damn."

Jack laughed. "Hey, at least you have notes."

"Go to hell." He only laughed harder. She rolled her eyes. "Well, it looks like I've got interviews to conduct," she said, standing and leaving the office.

* * *

She could see why Jack had said this Cutter was at home. It wasn't that he was in pyjamas or anything, but something about the look of his clothes just seemed to make them look like the sort of thing that people didn't wear outside the house.

"Hello, Professor. I'm Dr. Ashley Stafford." She extended a hand that he ignored.

"Dr. Stafford, what the hell is going on? One minute I'm in my kitchen getting a drink, next minute I'm in the middle of some bloody lab with two copies of myself!"

"Just calm down, please. You've been pulled out of your reality and into this one. It was accidental, but we're going to reverse it." _Hopefully._

"That's supposed to calm me down?"

_Good point. _"You wanted the facts."

"Oh, you're a real comedian."

Ashley smiled wryly. "Sorry. Look, what can you tell me about your reality?"

His world sounded much like this one, though he'd never heard of Torchwood. The anomaly project was based at the Home Office under James Lester. Apparently, like in the world the Nick she knew had come from, Lester hadn't been knighted in this Cutter's world. The team was almost the same. Almost.

"Wait. Claudia _Wyland_?"

"Yes."

"We have a Claudia Brown here."

"That's her maiden name."

"Oh, she's married then?"

"Divorced."

"Oh." She consulted her notes again. "You said Helen Ambrose is sometimes part of the group. Isn't she your wife?"

"We divorced eight years ago. She got involved with the project because she's been with Stephen for years - when she's not abroad, which is also why she's only occasionally part of the team."

"Huh. Well, that's interesting. Look, one more thing. This may seem odd, but with three of you here plus the Nick Cutter I work with, there's four of you in this reality. So do you have any sort of nickname you can go by while you're here?"

"A nickname."

"I know it's ridiculous. Just humour me."

He sighed. "Some of my students call me Doc. They say I make too many bad ER jokes."

Ashley grinned. "That works. See you later – I've got two more of you to interview."

* * *

The second Cutter stood up when she walked in. "Ashley, what the hell are we doing at Torchwood? Did you forget the Arthropleurid in the Underground? And when did you cut your hair?"

"Um" said Ashley. "Professor, I'm sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about. You've been pulled into a different reality. I'm not the Ashley you know." She paused, thinking back over the mission reports she'd read. "If I remember the records correctly, the incident you're talking about happened nearly a year ago here."

Cutter dropped back into his chair, clearly stunned. After a moment, Ashley said, "Are you all right?"

"Would you be?"

"No, probably not."

"I hope you can fix this quickly because I'm in the middle of a very bad situation," he said bluntly.

"Yeah, I worked that one out. I'll do my best. So, tell me about your reality."

His reality had more differences than the other one. Torchwood and the Home Office jointly ran the anomaly project, which was based in a London version of the Torchwood Hub. Even weirder, Claudia's counterpart and her own were the supervisors, with Claudia reporting to Lester and Ashley reporting to the Torchwood Director, whose identity came as another shock.

"Hang on. Sarah Jane Smith's the Torchwood Director? But she doesn't like Torchwood, all because they used to hate the Doctor and she disapproves of guns."

"You've mentioned that Doctor before. I got the impression it was some other group he had trouble with – UNIT, I think it was."

"UNIT? Huh. That's fascinating." She wondered how the Brigadier would react to that one.

She asked him the same nickname question she'd asked Doc, eliciting raised eyebrows.

"I don't really have one… This is going to make me feel like a 12-year-old again, but just use Nicholas."

"All right then."

* * *

Nick was getting increasingly nervous. He hadn't expected to land in the middle of Torchwood – and he sure as hell hadn't expected to see two other versions of himself show up with him. Something had gone wrong. Ashley may have sent him to Torchwood on purpose, but the appearance of his doubles had to be a mistake.

He looked up when the door opened. Ashley walked in, a very different Ashley than the one he knew. She had shorter hair, a dressier outfit, and stiletto heels. Of course, that could just be the Torchwood effect – he'd seen a lot of suits on the way down to the interrogation rooms.

Whatever the reason, it bugged him. Though it wasn't nearly as painful as dealing with Jenny had been, it was unnerving to see this version of Ashley. She, of course, was fine; why shouldn't she be?

"You know," she said, sitting down across from him, "this is my fourth first meeting with you. Somehow, we always seem to be in interrogation rooms." She grinned at him, and Nick found himself relaxing slightly. Maybe she wasn't as different as he'd originally thought.

"So," she continued, "tell me about your reality."

He bristled. "It's not my reality."

Her eyes narrowed slightly. "No, I didn't think so. So, then, tell me about the reality you just came from – and then about the one you're really from."

* * *

Cutter's story was what she'd expected. From what he'd said, he'd been in Nick's reality while Nick had been here, in his. She didn't need the RM test; she was certain.

But just as she was standing up to go, the door opened to admit one of the interns, a petite blonde woman whom Ashley had never met. "Dr. Stafford?"

"Yes?"

"Dr. Harper told me to give you this," she said, handing Ashley a folder and leaving. Ashley flipped it open, her eyes scanning the papers inside. After a moment, she closed it and looked up at Cutter. "Well, Professor, welcome home."


	17. Deliberations and Reunions

Disclaimer: It's not mine.

_**Chapter 17 – Deliberations and Reunions:**_ "So you were right then," Jack said. Ashley nodded, leaning back in her chair.

"Yeah. One problem solved, another created."

"Looks that way. What do you intend to do about it?"

"Well, I thought I'd rebuild my counterpart's CRD – Cross-Reality Device. Of course, I'll have to redo her calculations, but the basic reasoning seems to be sound."

"Sounds good. I think you need to call Lester and arrange a meeting."

Ashley made a face. "I was trying not to think about that. I really hate that man."

"Pity. You might be stuck with him permanently."

Ashley's eyebrows shot up. "Sorry?"

"Prime Minister Jones thinks it might be a good idea to have a permanent Torchwood presence in the anomaly project. Who better than you?"

"I didn't see that coming." It was all she could think to say.

"Well, you're already integrated, so to speak. Besides, it might be better for you and Daniel."

"Excuse me?"

Jack sighed. "I love Gwen, and I wouldn't trade what I have with her for anything, but I won't deny that life would be easier for us both if we didn't work together."

"That makes sense. It, well, it's why I pushed him away for so long."

"I figured." He paused for a moment, and then said, "Besides, you've grown fond of them, haven't you? I didn't think you'd want to leave."

"I have… But this job was always understood as temporary. I mean I thought I'd keep in touch, be available, but that I'd return to my usual work here. It's just something I hadn't considered."

Jack nodded. "That makes sense, but think about it, all right?"

"I will, but for right now, I think I'd better call Lester."

* * *

"You said three Cutters, I believe," Lester said four hours later, after a meeting had been called. Ashley had just finished explaining what they knew of what had happened and giving the details about Doc and Nicholas.

"I did," she said, "and I'm getting to that." She reached into her bag and took out the notebook Cutter1 had given her, handing it to Nick.

"What's this?" he asked, opening it and flipping through the pages. "This looks like my writing. Where did it come from?"

"It's a manual of sorts, and your third counterpart had it. You've lost six months in your world; it'll help you catch up."

"Hang on," said Stephen. "If the third Cutter came from his world, isn't he our world's Nick?"

Ashley nodded. "Yeah. That's why he jumped. He was trying to get back here."

"Are you sure this is my world?" Nick wanted to know. "Because I don't know a 'Jenny Lewis'."

"She was hired after you left. She's a PR expert. Technically she doesn't exactly exist in this world."

"Why not?" Connor asked curiously.

"Because she's Claudia, apparently," said Nick, who had continued to read.

"A counterpart," Ashley corrected.

"Why does she have a different name than mine?" Claudia wanted to know.

"No idea. Maybe she was adopted. Personally, I find the apparent personality change to be more interesting, myself."

"While these comparisons are no doubt fascinating, I'm more concerned by the thought of four Cutters in one reality," Lester interrupted. "What are you doing about that?"

"Trying to use my counterpart's notes to rebuild her reality-jumping device. It may take some time. I'm betting you don't care about the technical bits."

"No, I don't. As long as the situation is not permanent, I don't care how you fix it." He stopped, looking around. "You can go."

* * *

Claudia caught up with Ashley just as the younger woman was about to head back to Torchwood. "Ashley?"

"Yeah, Claudia?"

"I want to go to Torchwood with you."

Ashley nodded. "All right. Let me make a quick phone call." She pulled out her mobile and punched in a number.

"Jack? Hey, I've got a question. I'm heading back over, but can I bring someone?"

"…"

Ashley rolled her eyes. "Hell no. Isn't it confusing enough? No, it's Claudia Brown, the Home Office field rep."

"…"

"Yeah, same person."

"…"

"Jack, are you going to clear this or not?"

"…"

"Thank you."

She hung up and grinned. "You've got clearance."

Claudia smiled. "Thanks. You're very informal at Torchwood, aren't you?"

"Since Jack took over, yeah. When Yvonne was in charge… Well, there'd have been a _lot_ of red tape. Shall we go?"

* * *

The drive to Canary Wharf was silent. Both women were too busy thinking to talk. Ashley's mind was whirling with possibilities. She was a scientist first, she couldn't help that. And this CRD her counterpart had come up with was intriguing, to say the least. Ashley sometimes did miss the leeway Yvonne had given the scientists, even though she knew it was for the best. And this way, she could learn more about alternate realities with far less risk.

Claudia's thoughts were on Nick. She'd decided to go to Torchwood on impulse, and because the idea of knowing Nick was back and not going to see him was almost unbearable. But she had no idea what she was going to do when she saw him.

When they reached Torchwood Tower, there was a slight hold-up. The guard didn't want to let Claudia in until Ashley pulled rank on him. Even then he wasn't happy Claudia followed Ashley through twisting hallways and up several flights of stairs, wondering how Ashley could possibly know where she was going.

They reached a door that Ashley knocked on and then opened without waiting for a reply. Two people were inside, a man seated behind a desk and a woman perched on the edge of it. Both of them looked up when the door opened.

"Hello, Ashley. It's a good thing Gwen and I were just talking," the man said.

"Shove it, Jack," Ashley shot back.

The man – Jack – just grinned before looking at Claudia. "Claudia Brown, right? I'm Captain Jack Harkness and this is Gwen Cooper."

"Nice to meet you."

"So, are the Cutters still in Interrogation?" Ashley asked.

"No, I had them moved into guest quarters."

"Nice of you." Ashley's voice was mildly surprised.

"I told him he shouldn't keep people locked up for no good reason," Gwen said matter-of-factly.

"Ah. That explains it."

"Why, do you need to do more interviewing?" Jack asked.

"No," Ashley said.

"I wanted to see Nick, the one from this reality," Claudia explained.

"That's Cutter, as opposed to Doc or Nicholas, right?" Gwen sought to confirm.

"Yeah," said Ashley.

"All right." Gwen turned to Claudia. "I'll take you down."

Ashley opened her mouth to object, but Jack cut in. "Ash, you and I need to talk. _Now_."

"What, am I in trouble?"

"No."

"Come on," Gwen said to Claudia. "They'll be at it for a while."

"I'm surprised he hasn't fired her," Claudia observed.

"Oh, they both enjoy it. Jack used to run the Cardiff branch; he only had three people to work with there. And then he dragged us all to London with him. He likes the one-on-one better."

Claudia nodded her understanding, and they kept walking in silence. As Gwen led her through Torchwood's corridors, Claudia wondered once again how people kept from getting lost. Although, she admitted to herself, according to Nick, Stephen, Connor, and Abby, the Home Office headquarters weren't exactly easy to navigate either if you weren't used to them. She supposed it was just a matter of what you got used to.

They turned down one last corridor and Gwen stopped. "So, the third door on the left." She paused. "Are you all right? You seem nervous."

Claudia shook her head. "No, I'm fine."

"All right. I'll be seeing you then," the other woman said before she left. Claudia walked over to the door Gwen had specified, her heart pounding as she opened it.

* * *

Nick didn't know why he wasn't happy. He was home, wasn't he? But he just felt numb.

Maybe it was the offhand way Ashley had told him. Maybe it was the fact that he was at the Torchwood Tower, a place as cold and alien to him as the ARC, a place where the only familiar face wasn't familiar at all. Or maybe it was simply that he couldn't quite believe he was back. To let himself hope it was true, after everything he'd been through, seemed dangerous.

He had his head in his hands when the door opened, and he didn't bother to look up. If it was Ashley or that man Harkness, they'd start talking whether he acknowledged them or not.

"Nick?"

His head snapped up so fast that he was actually disoriented for a second. When his head cleared, he focused on the woman in the doorway. Her hair was held back by a clip and for one awful moment he thought she was Jenny. Then he saw that her hair was auburn, not deep brown. When their eyes met, there was no doubt in his mind who he was looking at.

"Claudia." He stood, walking right up to her. They just stared at each other for a moment, neither knowing what to say.

Later, neither of them would be able to say how long they stayed like that, afraid to break the moment. Nor was it clear which of them moved first, but one second they were staring at each other and the next minute they were kissing. Nick's hands slid into Claudia's hair, unfastening the clip and tossing it away before his fingers tangled in the soft strands. Claudia's hands hooked behind his neck, pulling him closer.

When they finally had to stop kissing or suffocate, they broke apart. But Nick wasn't ready to let her go yet, so he hugged her. "I thought I'd lost you," he murmured into her ear.

"I know the feeling," she told him, pulling back a little so she could look at him. "Maybe next time you'll listen to me when I say I've got a bad feeling about something."

He couldn't help it; he had to laugh. "Yeah, I'm sure I will."

They sat down next to each other on the room's small bed. "I am sorry," he said after a moment.

"You couldn't have known," she reassured him. "Do you even know what happened exactly? We've been at a loss here, though Cutter thinks Helen set him up."

"It was more this reality's Helen getting her counterpart to help set _me_ up. I think he just got caught in the crossfire."

"Why did Helen want you thrown into the wrong reality?"

"Revenge, according to the other Helen."

Claudia frowned, confused. "I think you need to explain this a little better."

* * *

When Nick finished, Claudia shook her head. "I can't imagine having everyone think I was mad," she said finally.

"Yeah, it wasn't the best bit of my life." He smiled bitterly. "Do you know, I thought at first that traveling through the anomalies had changed the timeline? I thought…" He couldn't finish.

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah," he said, with a more genuine smile. "So, what happened here?"

"Well, it was three months before Cutter showed up. When he did, Lester followed some secret directive and contacted Torchwood, which is how Ashley got here. We got a new SAS captain, Becker, while Ryan goes through rehab."

"Ryan survived?"

"Barely, but yeah. Stephen's been spending a lot of time with him."

Nick nodded, not surprised at all. "Anything else I should know?"

"Not really, it was pretty quiet. No conspiracies or anything – well, Ashley and I got kidnapped by some animal-rights extremists, but that's all."

"Kidnapped?" he asked sharply.

"It's fine. Nothing really happened. We were held in a cell, and then we managed to escape and call in the cavalry. That's it." Her voice was reassuring, but he didn't look entirely convinced.

"Why'd they do it?" he asked.

"They thought the creatures were clones, or genetic experiments. They were trying to find out what we were doing and then stop us."

"And nothing happened?"

"_No_, Nick. Relax."

"Sorry."

She smiled. "It's fine. So, do you know how long you'll be stuck here for?"

"No. I didn't ask and no one's said."

"Well, they can't hold you, can they? I mean, this is your world."

"I've no idea. I probably should have tried to find that out, but…"

He was interrupted by a knock on the door. It opened to reveal Jack Harkness. "Hope I'm not interrupting anything," he teased. "Anyway, Professor, you should be able to leave within the next few days. Miss Brown, if you want to stick around, that's fine."

"Your timing's good, Captain," Claudia observed, ignoring his initial comment – and his final one, for that matter. "We were just talking about that."

Harkness grinned. "Yeah, I know. The security cameras have speakers."

A/N: Typical Jack, right? Oh, and yes, PM Jones is Harriet Jones, and the Ryan bit was for the Stephen/Ryan fans out there (I'm not a huge slash fan, but Ryan/Stephen's one of the ones I like). And for the Nick/Claudia fans who've probably been wondering about their reunion, I hope you liked it. They're certainly the most cooperative couple in this series - no past baggage between them or other serious misgivings to deal with. Just Helen, but that's in the works. Next chapter, Doc and Nicholas have a chat, while Nick2 (the Nick from the season 2 universe) shares his reactions over what happened in his reality while Nick1 (canon Nick) was there. R&R!


	18. Fractured Mirrors

Disclaimer: Not mine.

_**Chapter 18 – Fractured Mirrors**_: Nicholas stepped out into the corridor just as Claudia went into the room she'd been directed to. He almost called her name, glad to see a familiar face. But then he remembered that this wasn't his world and familiar faces meant nothing.

That was why he'd left the room, actually. From what Ashley had said, it sounded like this reality was ahead of his in term of time. Maybe he could find out what was going to happen in his reality. There were so many mysteries he wanted solved – namely the fate of Helen – and if he could get some answers here, maybe it would be worth having gotten dragged into an alternate reality.

"You know, I doubt they'll let you get too far," said a voice. _His_ voice, actually. He turned, his stomach lurching. He hadn't seen any of his counterparts since they'd all arrived, and he'd been trying not to think too hard about them.

His double had a slightly different haircut and was wearing different clothes, but that didn't make it any less unnerving to look at himself. In fact, he thought it might be making it worse.

"So, what are they calling you?" the newcomer asked.

"Nicholas."

"Good God, I'd feel like I was back in lower school."

"I know, but at least it makes things a little less confusing. What about you?"

"Doc."

"Where the hell did that come from?"

"ER and smart-ass students."

"Oh."

Silence. Then: "So, where were you trying to go?"

"I don't know. This reality's ahead of mine, as far as time is concerned, anyway. I'm hoping there may be some answers here."

"For what, the anomalies?"

"Them, Helen – "

"So she disappeared in your world too." 'Doc' sounded bemused.

"You mean she didn't in yours?"

"No. She never went on the Forest of Dean trip, woke up that morning sick as a dog."

"So you're still married then?"

"No, we divorced later that year. She's been with Stephen for about seven years, when she's not abroad, that is."

"Oh, so what about you?"

"I'm seeing Claudia."

Nicholas stared at him. "You are?"

"You sound surprised."

"I barely know her. I guess you've known her longer."

"Yeah, I have." Doc paused, glancing around. "Should we really be chatting in the corridor?"

"Probably not." They went into Doc's room. Doc sat on the bed while Nicholas dropped into the only chair. "So," Nicholas continued, "where were you before getting yanked into Torchwood?"

"At home. Claudia's going to kill me for disappearing on her."

"Oh, I'm sure you'll talk her around."

"I hope so. The woman has a temper. What about you?"

"I was in the Underground." Nicholas frowned, his fear for Stephen and the others returning.

"Oh, the Arthropleurid incident?"

"Yeah. How'd that one go for you?"

"All right. No one died."

"I just hope the same goes for my world."

* * *

Ashley left Jack's office, her tension level high. He was pushing this idea of her being the Torchwood rep on the anomaly team. Also, he was worried about their guests.

So was she, to be honest. Four versions of the same man in one reality just wasn't a viable situation. Especially if entropic cascade failure kicked in. that was one theory they hadn't been able to prove or disprove yet – and the conflicting reports from the American SGC didn't help any – and she really hoped it wouldn't be a factor here. Since it would mean that the presence of all four Nicks would slowly kill them all, it wouldn't be good if it happened.

Even the possibility of it added a greater urgency to the situation. Luckily, she had six years of study and her counterpart's notes to work with. That should cut the time down considerably. Assuming, of course, that it was the other Ashley's calibrations that were off and not the overall design of her machine.

Her mobile rang, cutting into her thoughts. She checked the display and saw that it was Nick calling her. "Nick, is everything all right?"

"I finished reading that notebook."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

She didn't like his tone. "So what happened? I mean…"

"Stephen's dead."

"Oh God. How?"

"Leek turned out to be a traitor. He – and this world's Helen, they were working together – had this bunker of creatures. Stephen sacrificed himself so they wouldn't escape."

"Christ."

"Yeah. Look, I hate to push, since I'm sure your boss is on your case, but – "

"Do I have any idea how long it'll take me to rebuild the CRD? Unfortunately, no."

"Why is it so hard if you have all of the information?"

"Several reasons, including the fact that some of this is based on areas of study that Jack shut down when he took over three years ago."

"Why would he do that?"

"Because they were the sort of thing that could cause a disaster. They did in your world; Torchwood One was destroyed."

"Oh. Well, all right, but that's a fair point, but I need to get home, and so do those other poor sods who are stuck here."

"I know." And it may be more urgent than you think. "I'll do my best. I just got the notes today."

"Sorry. It's just that now I know for sure that I can get back, waiting's that much harder."

"Understandable. Look, I'll talk to you later, all right?"

"All right." He hung up, and Ashley sighed, raking her fingers through her hair.

"Damn it all to hell," she muttered. Just once, she would have liked a simple, clear-cut job. But this was the weird sector, and there was no such thing.

* * *

After hanging up with Ashley, Nick wasn't sure what to do. Briefly he considered the idea of going to Torchwood for a chat with his counterpart, but that didn't seem like a great idea. The two of them had been living each other's lives for months; wasn't the situation awkward enough? Besides, Claudia was probably with him, and Nick didn't want to interrupt that.

There were no anomalies, so he didn't even have the distraction of work. All he could think of was what he'd read, and the idea of going home.

He couldn't believe Stephen was dead. And the way he'd died… He kept trying not to imagine it, but his mind wouldn't stop.

His world had changed drastically since he'd left it. Readjusting wouldn't be easy, though the manual he'd been given would help. He'd have to remember to thank his counterpart later. But even knowing that there'd be some rough times once he got back, he wanted to leave. There was nothing wrong with this world, but he didn't belong here. And as soon as Ashley managed to recreate what her counterpart had done, he was leaving.

A/N: Just a few more chapters left - two more for the story and then a four-part epilogue. Oh, there's now a slideshow for this story on YouTube. To find it, go to the link on my profile.


	19. Double Cross

Disclaimer: Not mine.

A/N: Italicized names are for the Helen of the Series 2 universe. I will only italicize names when both versions appear, which is why Nick's name was in regular print.

_**Chapter 19 –Double Cross:**_ Three weeks later there had been no signs of entropic cascade failure, and Ashley had made a lot of progress. Good news for her and the displaced Cutters, but bad news for Timothy Wolsen of Torchwood Four in Northampton.

She would have been amused if Wolsen's moves hadn't been so risky. While she'd been digging through the files on the reality research that Jack had cut off, she'd discovered that Northampton had never stopped studying any of it. Jack had been furious, and after reading her counterpart's account of the disaster there, she couldn't blame him. But the Northampton records had been useful in building the CRD, so she was glad it had happened.

"Looks like that's coming along," said a voice from the door.

"Hey, Nick. Yeah, it is," Ashley said, glancing up. "Thank God for Northampton, right?"

Nick grinned. He'd heard the whole story, including how Jack had summoned Wolsen to London and yelled at him for two hours straight. It was the general consensus that if Gwen hadn't been in the room to calm him down, Jack might actually have killed him.

"Sick of Torchwood then? I told you," she commented. He'd elected to stay at Torchwood, letting his counterpart have his life back.

"Just a bit, yeah. Though it's been interesting, learning about the other two realities. Unnerving, but interesting."

"Yeah?" she said absently as she tinkered with some wires.

"Yeah." He shook his head. "Doc's planning to pop the question when he gets home."

She laughed. "Really? You know, that's two out of four. I wonder what'll happen when Nicholas gets home – or hell, when you meet Jenny."

"Don't you have better things to do than theorize on matching love lives?"

"Yes, but you're distracting me."

"Well, I'd better go then."

* * *

Daniel came by, dragging her out of the lab for lunch. He claimed that his new goal in life was to make sure she didn't bury herself in work. Since she had a tendency to do just that, she couldn't even defend herself. She was still laughing at his parting comment when she re-entered the lab.

The laughter died on her lips when her eyes fell on the CRD. It looked like someone had taken a hammer to it. But she'd locked the lab door when she left – she'd had to unlock it to get back in. The number of people who knew the passcode for her personal lab was very low. Jack, Daniel, her three interns, and the head of security were the only ones who knew except for Ashley herself.

Wait. Security. The security camera footage. That would tell her who'd done it, and then she could find out why.

* * *

Identical expressions were a little unnerving under any circumstances, Ashley mused, but when the people who wore them were just as identical, that was even truer.

"Your security must be awful," Doc commented.

"Seeing as someone's erased the security footage too, I'd have to agree," Ashley said grimly.

"So what now?" Nick wanted to know.

"I fix the CRD and we find out who did this."

Nicholas frowned. "Why don't we set them up?"

"What?"

"Tell people that you were able to fix it quickly, and then leave your office unattended. One of us – or all three, it doesn't matter – should hide in there and catch whoever it is."

"All three," said Nick firmly, "just in case."

"You know," Ashley commented, "that just might work."

* * *

A few days later, Ashley left her lab and went to go bug Ianto. When her pager beeped, she went back to her lab. There she found the three Cutters – and Tom Howard, whose eyes were oddly glassy.

"Tom? It was you?" she said, but he didn't even look at her properly. "Tom! Answer me!" she snapped. He reacted to that, his eyes clearing instantly, though they were emotionless.

"I do as I'm told," he said in a monotone. Ashley frowned. What the hell?

She called Jack, who reacted rather strongly to the fact that Tom had responded – albeit rather uselessly – to a commanding tone. "Goddamn it!"

"Jack, what do you know that I don't?" she said slowly.

"I can't be sure until we get him to the medical ward, but I think he's under mind control."

Oh. Well, that would explain the reaction. And she should have thought of that – except, well, she'd never actually seen mind control before. That was one experience Torchwood thus far had not given her. Apparently it now had.

* * *

Owen's checkup – with a very impressive scanner – proved it. Tom was under mind control. They did manage to bring him out of it, and he was talking over himself in his rush to apologize. Ashley was willing to let him ramble for a while – she'd learned from experience that Tom usually felt better if he got that sort of thing out of his system – but then he said something that made her interrupt.

"Hang on, a woman did this? What did she look like?"

"Um, she was kind of tall, short brown hair, dark eyes. Probably in her forties."

"Shit," Ashley said with feeling. "Helen."

"Yeah," Nick agreed. "But which one?"

* * *

"Going into sabotage now?

Helen turned at the sardonic remark. "I wouldn't have had to if you hadn't talked to Stafford."

"And if you hadn't gotten Stephen killed, I wouldn't have done that," _Helen_ shot back.

"I didn't get him killed. He chose to play the hero."

"In a situation _you_ created."

"Actually, Leek created it."

"He wouldn't have been able to without you."

Helen sighed, exasperated. "Hate me if you want. Just stay out of my way."

"And if I don't?"

"Then you'll face the consequences." Helen wondered if maybe it was time to get her old friend Nash involved in this, assuming she could get him out of the Americans' custody, but decided against it. It had been his bad judgment that had screwed them in New Orleans years ago, and she didn't need him to mess this up for her.

She walked away without another word, her counterpart glaring after her.

_Helen_ didn't know what the other woman had planned, but she knew it wouldn't be good. And she knew that she was the only one who could stop it.

How had it come to this? She didn't know. What she did know, however, was that it was time to end it.


	20. The End of the Affair

_**Chapter 20 – The End of the Affair: **_Another week passed before the CRD was fully repaired and functional. It would have been longer if Ashley hadn't finally given in and allowed her interns to help, despite fears that they'd botch it. Tom Howard in particular had been very helpful, trying to make up for having been Helen's short-term pawn. Ashley had tried to tell him it wasn't his fault; when that hadn't worked she'd decided to simply accept his help and be grateful for it.

Jack didn't want them activating the CRD in the middle of Torchwood HQ, just in case something went wrong. Ashley felt that this was overkill, but she didn't feel like wasting her time arguing with him. He suggested an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of the City, so she, the displaced Cutters, and the anomaly team headed to the designated location.

"Why exactly did you lot come?" Ashley asked Claudia before they left.

"Is it a problem?"

"No, just curious."

"Well, Connor wants to see your CRD in action – actually, I think he wants to steal it. Something about the 'ultimate sci-fi find this side of Tatooine', I think was his description."

Ashley choked back a laugh. "Typical Connor."

"Exactly. Then Abby pointed out that we should probably see Cutter off, considering we worked with him for three months."

"Oh. Makes sense. Well, Connor's out of luck. After we're done here, Jack wants the CRD destroyed and the files locked away."

"A little paranoid, isn't he?"

"Considering that in the 'ARC reality', twenty-seven out of eight hundred and twenty-three people survived, no, not really."

"Good point."

"I thought so."

* * *

It didn't take long for Ashley to prep the CRD once they got there, though she made sure to double- and triple-check her calibrations. _Nick_ would be going first, since his reality was the easiest to set the CRD for.

"Oh, just a warning," Cutter said suddenly, as if he'd just remembered. "Lester's probably still angry with me, and depending on how much of that he took out on Jenny and Ashley, they might not be too happy either."

"And as you won't be there, they might take it out on me?" _Nick_ asked.

"Lester will. Ashley and Jenny… I'm not sure."

"Right. Sounds like fun."

Ashley laughed. "Well, I can't say for sure, but my counterpart should be fine. Either way, it's about time to go."

_Nick_ nodded and moved to stand next to the CRD. "So I just press this grey button and try not to move, right?"

"Right. I don't know where you'll land, just so you know. You two," she said, turning to Doc and Nicholas, "will probably go back to wherever you were."

"But since I wasn't pulled here by the other CRD, you can't be certain where I'll end up," _Nick_ sought to clarify.

"Basically."

"Wouldn't he land in the other Ashley's lab? That's where I left from," Cutter wanted to know.

"Maybe, but not necessarily. The connection's not as exact."

"Shouldn't you know? Being a realities expert and all?" Connor asked.

"If this had ever been done on record before, yeah, but it hasn't," Ashley explained before looking at _Nick_.

"Yeah. Well, good-bye then." His finger moved to the button.

The flash of reflected light was their only warning. Ashley was grateful for Jack's insistence that all field operatives get special training. The kind of special training that made her think such a flash could have come from the barrel of a gun.

"Everyone down!" she yelled, dropping to the floor. Not a moment too soon; a moment later, a shot rang out. Luckily, no one was hit; however, there was a hole in the wall behind Cutter and Claudia.

There was a catwalk in the warehouse, and it was there that Ashley's eyes scanned for the shooter. While she did, she tried to remember who here was armed. She was, and her gun was in her hand, but otherwise… A tightness in the pit of her stomach eased when Stephen moved up next to her, holding a handgun, but it came back in full force when she saw the shooter. Helen.

"Sick of using creatures as weapons, are you, Helen?" That was Cutter. She really wished he wouldn't antagonise his ex – the woman might deserve it, but seeing as she was both psychotic and armed, it really didn't seem like the wisest thing to do.

Helen laughed. "Hello, Nick. Don't tell me you're holding a grudge."

"What could have possibly given you that impression?"

"Considering who that shot was closest to, you seem to be holding a grudge as well," Ashley commented. She didn't much fancy the idea of baiting Helen, but she wanted to end the verbal sparring between Cutter and his ex-wife before more shots were fired.

"Helen, what are you going to do?" Nick asked reasonably. "Kill us all?"

"Don't worry, I'll let you three go," she said, including Doc and Nicholas in the statement.

"That's great," Doc said, "but there are six other people here."

"And I may let four of them go – if I get full cooperation."

And it wasn't hard to guess which two wouldn't be leaving if Helen had her way. Not when there was already a bullet hole in the wall. Yeah, Helen definitely held a grudge.

Ashley glanced at Stephen. She could see conflict in his eyes and remembered the rumors about Stephen having an affair with Helen. Even though all signs pointed to his being involved with Captain Ryan now, this still had to be difficult. Also, according to her counterpart, this Helen had manipulated another Stephen so much that it had gotten him killed. Stephen may be armed, but Ashley was afraid he might not be reliable backup.

"If you don't get rid of your guns, I'll just start shooting," Helen threatened, her eyes on Ashley.

Shit. Did she want to risk taking a shot and missing? If that happened, Helen would certainly start shooting, not to mention the ricochet from Ashley's shot. And if she gave up her gun – as Stephen was doing – the only person armed would be Helen. Neither option seemed particularly good.

She thought she'd waited too long to decide when another gunshot cracked through the air. She looked around; no one was hurt. But then…

She looked up at Helen, to find the woman staring at a bloody hole in her shirt. She glanced up then, beyond the group, to someone in the shadows. She seemed almost… amused. Then she crumpled to the ground.

Immediately, both Ashley and Stephen – who'd grabbed his gun again – pointed their weapons at the shadowed figure. When the person came into clear view, Ashley's jaw dropped. It was _Helen_.

A different _Helen_, certainly. This one had long hair and a different look in her eyes. And, unlike her now-dead counterpart, she didn't seem to be looking for a confrontation. Faced with two people aiming guns at her, she put her own on the floor and kicked it away from herself, holding up her hands.

"That's a new definition of suicide," Ashley heard Connor remark. He had a point too. Was killing your counterpart considered suicide or homicide? Granted, it wasn't really important. The motivation behind it, however, was.

"OK, so which one are you?" Ashley asked.

"She's from my reality," _Nick_ said, clear certainty in his voice.

"He's right," _Helen_ said. "I'm also the one who explained things to your counterpart in my reality. I think I've done enough to prove I'm on your side."

"Why did you do it?" _Nick_ wanted to know. "The initial switch, that is?"

_Helen_ shrugged. "I was angry, she was convincing… I don't know really. Does it even matter at this point?"

"I guess not," Nick admitted.

"For what it's worth," _Helen_ added, her eyes moving to Cutter for a moment before returning to _Nick_, "I am sorry. I never thought any of this would go so far."

"What are you going to do now?" _Nick_ asked her.

_Helen_ laughed bitterly. "Will I have a choice?"

Ashley spoke up. "Technically I guess I'm in charge here, though I don't really feel it's my decision. But I won't try to stop you from going."

She looked at _Nick_, who shrugged. "Will you leave us alone?" he asked Helen. "Not interfere in the present?"

"After all of this, I've lost interest in the present. You can tell your friends at the ARC they'll have no more trouble from me."

"Then you should go."

_Helen_ nodded, and when no one else said anything, she walked away.

"Was that a good idea?" Abby asked.

"Holding her would be wrong, and wouldn't have much point," Claudia pointed out.

_Nick_ threw Ashley a slightly rueful grin. "Don't worry about it. Even if she does get up to her old tricks, it'll be in my world. You lot won't know the difference."

"Hopefully," Cutter added.

* * *

Two days later they tried again. This time they were in an unused lab at the Torchwood Tower. Ashley had told Jack in no uncertain terms that she wasn't about to try using the CRD in a public place again. He hadn't even argued.

Despite being in a controlled environment, all of them were tense. But as first _Nick_, then Doc, and finally Nicholas left without a hitch, they relaxed.

Jack, who had chosen to observe, couldn't resist teasing her as she shut down the CRD. "So, glad this job's over?"

"Not as glad as the three men who just left, but yeah," Ashley admitted.

Jack laughed. "So, given any thought to that permanent transfer?"

Ashley was distracted from responding when she saw Connor trying to slip away. "Oi, Connor! Do you even know where you're going?"

"Uh, no, actually," the young man said with a sheepish smile. When Ashley glared at him, he hurriedly said, "I'll just wait till everyone else leaves, yeah?"

"Yeah," Ashley said.

"Smooth," Jack commented dryly. Ashley gave him a look.

"Shut up. As for your question, yeah, I have."

"And?"

Ashley grinned. "I'll take the job."

He landed hard on his back on his kitchen floor. "God," Doc muttered, pushing himself up. "I forgot the landing."

* * *

It had been night when Doc left. Now there was sunlight streaming through the windows. "Oh shit." How long had he been gone?

He remembered Ashley saying that time between realities didn't always match up. Remembering how far back Nicholas had been in terms of time, the comment made sense. And left him very worried.

He grabbed the phone and dialed Claudia's mobile. He listened to it ringing, hoping she'd pick up.

"Hello?"

"Claudia, it's Nick. Look – "

"Nick, thank God. What the hell happened? You just vanished!"

"Yeah, I know. How long have I been gone?"

"Nearly a month. Again, what happened?"

He sighed. "It's a bit of a long story, and I have a feeling you won't be the last one to ask. I think it'd be easier to explain to everyone at once."

"Are you trying to call a meeting, Nick?"

"I guess."

She sighed. "Can you at least tell me where you went?"

"Would you believe me if I said an alternate reality?"

* * *

Nicholas was stunned for a moment by the force of his landing, but the rapidly advancing Arthropleurid brought him to his senses in record time.

He scrambled away, the Arthropleurid barely missing him. "Damn it!"

"Nick? Where did you come from?" he heard Stephen say.

"Why don't we discuss this after we get away from the giant centipede?"

"Good idea," Stephen agreed.

Making use of their torches – Nicholas had been smart enough to bring one from the other reality, just in case – the two men were able to ward off the Arthropleurid long enough to get out. When they emerged, Claudia and Ashley hurried over, Abby and Connor not far behind.

"What happened down there?" Claudia asked.

"Well, I nearly got bitten, and then Nick showed back up. Literally out of nowhere, I should add," Stephen said.

Ashley threw Nicholas a sharp look. "Really?"

"Don't we have other things to worry about at the moment?" Claudia wanted to know.

"True," Ashley agreed. "Still…"

Nicholas sighed. "Let me guess. You used to study alternate realities."

"I gave them up to play with time, but yeah. And I _know_ I've never mentioned that, so how did you know?"

"An accident caused by one of your counterparts pulled me into one. I've only just got back, though it doesn't seem I've lost much time."

"Two hours, actually, that's why I was down there. I was looking for you," Stephen informed him.

Ashley opened her mouth to ask something, but Claudia cut her off.

"Let's discuss this after taking care of the giant centipede in the Underground," she ruled.

"Fine, but once this is taken care of, we'd better be discussing it," Ashley said firmly.

Nicholas only just stopped himself from groaning. He had a feeling he was in for a long interrogation once this was over.

* * *

_Nick_ got up slowly, brushing the dirt from his clothing. Looking around, he shook his head. Of all the places to land, he just _had_ to wind up in the bloody Forest of Dean. Sometimes he was sure that some deity somewhere was having a good laugh at his expense.

He dug his mobile out of his pocket and nearly dialed Stephen. Then he remembered that his friend was dead in this reality. So he had to find someone else.

It would probably be best to call the ARC, but he really didn't feel like dealing with Lester at the moment. Nor did he feel like dealing with Connor's enthusiasm for more sci-fi turned reality, which left Abby out; Connor would undoubtedly tag along. Leek was dead – though Nick wouldn't have called him anyway – and he didn't know Jenny.

That left Ashley, whose mobile was apparently the same as it was in the other reality, or so his counterpart had said. But she was still a relative stranger to him, even though his impression was that she was more like the Ashley he knew than, for example, Claudia was like Jenny. And yet he hesitated to call her.

He was still debating what to do when the choice was taken from him. He'd forgotten that the SAS patrolled this area. It was a good thing that they'd recognized him, though when the sergeant called the ARC, he wasn't sure how good it was. It looked like he'd have to deal with Lester after all.

But when the black car showed up, it wasn't Lester who stepped out. Instead, _Nick_ found himself facing a brunette woman in spike heels, a black skirt suit that looked designer even to his untrained eye, and dramatic makeup. Under all that, though, was a familiar face. So this was Jenny.

"Hello, Professor," she said evenly, holding out a hand.

He shook it briefly. "Miss Lewis, right?"

"I prefer Jenny, actually. Though anything's better than 'Claudia'." She smiled slightly. "We'd better go. Lester wants to see you immediately."

"Wonderful," he muttered, falling into step beside her. She laughed.

"I'm sure it won't be that bad," she said before entering the car.

_Nick_ went around to the car's other side, for some reason remembering Ashley's comment about his counterparts' love lives and how they might pertain to his meeting Jenny. He'd laughed it off at the time. So then why was part of him thinking she may have had a point?

* * *

In the Torchwood parking lot, Nick stopped suddenly.

"What?" Claudia asked, concerned.

He shook his head. "It's nothing really."

"Nick…"

"It's just that it's finally over. Everyone's where they should be and everything's put right again."

"You sound surprised."

"I guess I am. It's been…"

"Terrible. It was for both of us."

"Yeah. But now we can get back to normal."

"As normal as possible considering that we chase dinosaurs for a living."

"There is that," he admitted. "But it's not all bad, surely?" he asked before pulling her in for a quick kiss.

She laughed when they broke apart. "No," she said. "No, it's not."

"I hate to interrupt," Stephen called back to them, "but we've got another anomaly."

Nick and Claudia exchanged an amused look before hurrying to catch up. Nick smiled to himself. True, their definition of normal wasn't exactly typical, but he wouldn't have it any other way.

A/N: Just the epilogues left now... one for each version of our favorite Professor.


	21. Circles of Gold

Disclaimer: Not mine, except those you don't know.

A/N: This is Doc's universe. Since he's the only Nick around, I'm referring to him as Nick, not Doc. The same will hold true for Nicholas. Oh, and non-evil Helen is weird to write, even for a short scene.

_**Epilogue 1 – Circles of Gold:**_ Nick frowned at his reflection, tugging at his collar. Behind him, Stephen laughed.

Nick turned, glaring at his friend. "What?"

"Nothing, except you look uncomfortable as hell. Not getting cold feet, are you?"

"No. I just hate suits, that's all."

"Well, one day won't kill you. And if you didn't wear one, Claudia would kill you."

"Funny. Very funny."

"I thought so." Relenting, Stephen put a hand on Nick's shoulder. "Relax. The two of you are perfect for each other."

Nick smiled fondly. "I guess I'm second time lucky."

* * *

"I knew you and Adam wouldn't last," Claudia's cousin Beth said as she helped Claudia with her veil.

"Oh? Why not?"

Beth pointed to the mirror. "See that smile on your face? You didn't have that look when you married Adam."

Claudia shook her head. "No, I guess I didn't." She laughed. "After the divorce, I never expected to be here again."

"Well, the things you don't expect usually turn out to be the best things in your life," Beth said brightly.

Claudia smiled. "I think you're right."

"Of course I'm right. Now let's head out there so you can wow that Scottish groom of yours."

* * *

Nick's breath caught in his throat when he first saw Claudia. She looked absolutely amazing, her sheer veil not really obscuring her face. He was pretty sure that he had a foolish grin on his face, but he didn't care. She reached him and gave him a smile as bright as his own as the priest began to speak.

They'd chosen to say their own vows, and Nick went first. "Claudia, you turned my life upside down from the second you walked into it. After all, it's not every day a man gets kissed by a beautiful stranger. But getting the chance to spend time with you, to get to know you, that changed everything, and I can't possible imagine my life without you." He slid her ring on.

There was a pause before Claudia spoke. "Nick, I wasn't looking for love, I'd given up on it. I tried to stop myself from falling for you, but you wouldn't let me, and you were right." She slipped the ring she held onto his finger.

"I now pronounce you man and wife," the priest announced, and the newly married couple kissed, keeping it relatively chaste. They were in a church, after all.

* * *

The reception was going well. No anomalies had cropped up – something which no one had brought attention to, for fear of jinxing it – and Connor hadn't done anything crazy. Caroline, his new girlfriend, seemed to be a good influence on him. Granted, Stephen, in his role as best man, had given a rather embarrassing toast, but that was to be expected.

Someone cleared their throat, and both Nick and Claudia turned at the sound. Helen, there as Stephen's date, gave them an appraising look. "Congratulations," she said with a wry smile.

Nick and Claudia exchanged surprised glances. While Helen had never been downright hostile at work, she also never interacted with them any more than was necessary. Finally Nick said, "Thank you."

"It all works out," Helen said. "You two suit each other, Stephen and I suit each other, everyone's happy." With a wicked smile, she added to Claudia, "Just take my advice and don't let him get too caught up in his bloody research."

Claudia chuckled. "Duly noted."

"Good," Helen said with a decisive nod before leaving to rejoin Stephen.

"Well, that was unexpected," Claudia observed.

"Yeah," Nick agreed with a faint smile. He would always be at least a little fond of Helen – she was the first woman he'd truly loved, after all – and he was glad that she was right; they _were_ both happy now.

* * *

On the plane, heading for their honeymoon, Nick found himself in a rather pensive mood. Helen's words were stuck in his mind. _"Everyone's happy."_ But were they?

He wasn't thinking of himself, but of the other versions of himself he'd met just over a year ago. Had Nicholas given up on his Helen, had the Nick whose world held a Jenny instead of a Claudia been able to settle in again, and had the last of them finally stopped being afraid that his homecoming was just a figment of his imagination and that it would be ripped from him? He wished there was some way to know what had happened to them all.

"Nick? Is everything all right?" Claudia's hand wrapped around his, squeezing gently. He smiled at her. He would never know what had happened in his counterparts' lives; he could only hope things had turned out well for them, and enjoy his own good fortune.

"All right doesn't begin to describe it."


	22. More Than Enough

Disclaimer: If you've seen it on TV, it's not mine.

A/N: Series 2 universe this time, so it's Nick/Jenny as opposed to Nick/Claudia.

_**Epilogue 2 – More Than Enough:**_ At first, Jenny didn't know what it was about Nick that was so very different from his counterpart. No one else seemed to notice anything, which only confused her further.

He had the same personality, the same behavior as the other Cutter; outwardly he was the same. His interactions with Abby and Connor, even with Lester, were the same. He was, however, a little less at ease with Ashley. And with Jenny herself…

With the other Cutter, she'd eventually formed a friendship – once he'd gotten her name straight. With Nick, she'd gotten on with him from day one. It had been so easy, so natural, that she hadn't even thought about it.

Then again, maybe it wasn't Nick at all. Maybe it was her. That would explain why no one else seemed to notice. In the end, she supposed it didn't matter. Whatever it was, it had made things better and not worse, so there wasn't much reason to question it.

* * *

In later years, they'd laugh about the way he chose to ask her out the first time. Jenny would say he just couldn't take being yelled at. Nick always replied that it wasn't the yelling but the fear that she'd throw one of her spike heels at his head.

They'd had an incident, and Nick had made a few unwise remarks to a reporter. It hadn't been anything serious, just a few sarcastic comments, but they didn't need another reporter with a grudge. That Matthew Blake was bad enough, especially since it seemed Ashley could not control her stepbrother.

"Just what the hell were you thinking?" she demanded, furious. "Of all the idiotic, childish things you could possibly…" She trailed off when she realized he wasn't even listening.

He was leaning against the office doorframe, arms folded, watching her. There was a smile tugging at his lips and an oddly intense look in his eyes. "What?" she snapped.

Nick didn't answer, just kept giving her that look. Then he blinked and said, "Have dinner with me?"

"What?" she said blankly.

"Not tonight, obviously, it's already 9:30." The odd smile turned into a grin at her stunned silence. "Jenny?"

"I – You're asking me out in the middle of my yelling at you?"

"Yes." He frowned. "Are you going to answer or just leave me hanging?"

Jenny blinked, and then said, "Not tonight, I agree it's too late."

Nick's grin returned full-blown. "Tomorrow then? Barring a new emergency?"

Jenny laughed. "That could work."

"6:00?"

"Perfect."

* * *

Ashley knew something was up with both Nick and Jenny. That morning she and Nick had been finishing up their latest bit of research and he'd been inordinately cheerful. Now she was in Jenny's office, and the other woman seemed oddly jumpy.

Ever since the reality cross fiasco had been settled, the ARC had been pulled into dealings with Torchwood, UNIT, even DESI. Lester delegated a fair bit of that to Jenny; he was far too busy with that interfering Christine Johnson to deal with it, and it was agreed on all sides that she was the greatest threat to them. Ashley had volunteered to help Jenny out because she had experience in working with different agencies.

They were supposed to be discussing a UNIT communiqué, but Jenny's attention seemed drawn to the clock. Finally Ashley's curiosity got the better of her.

"Do you have a hot date or something tonight?" she asked lightly.

Jenny froze. "What makes you think that?"

"Well, I _was_ only joking but your reaction makes me think I may be on to something." She grinned mischievously. "So, anyone I know?"

Jenny sighed. "I never said I had a date."

"Do you?"

"Why do you care?"

"I've never seen you so transfixed by the clock."

"Maybe I'm just trying to avoid being here till all hours."

"Good excuse, but pathetic delivery. Sorry, I'm not buying it." Jenny just glared at her. Ashley smiled sweetly and waited.

When it seemed like Jenny wouldn't give in, she decided to try a new angle. "Fine. I give up. No more personal interrogations."

"Thank you."

"So, do you know what's up with Nick?"

"What?"

"Nick. He was unusually cheerful today. I thought you might know something."

Jenny saw Ashley's innocent expression and realized that the younger woman was playing her. "Is that a way of trying to find out if his behavior and mine are connected?"

"I never said that," Ashley replied. "Why, is there a connection?"

Jenny sighed again, frustrated. This was getting ridiculous. "Nick and I are going out to dinner tonight."

"Really? Well, have fun," Ashley said. "Do you want to pick this up tomorrow?"

"All right. Thanks."

"No problem."

* * *

She told Nick the story over dinner. He found it amusing. "It could be worse," he pointed out when he saw that she didn't think it was funny. "Had it been Connor, we'd be the number one topic of discussion at the ARC tomorrow."

Jenny rolled her eyes. "Connor's too oblivious to notice. But you're right, Ashley's more discreet. She just likes to know everything."

"That's certainly true," he agreed. "Now, let's discuss something other than work or our coworkers."

"What do you want to talk about?"

"Tell me about yourself. I still feel like I hardly know you, even after eight months."

"All right. What do you want to know?"

He walked her to her door. For some reason, that left Jenny vaguely giddy. Mark hadn't been the romantic type, and he would have asked why she needed someone to go up to her door with her.

She had just put her key in the lock when she felt Nick's hand on her arm. He turned her around, saying, "Don't kill me for this," before his lips met hers.

She dropped her keys, her hands sliding into his hair. He'd been trying to keep the kiss light, but she didn't let him. She hadn't realized till now how much she wanted this.

When the need for oxygen overrode everything, they pulled apart. And looking into Nick's eyes, Jenny finally had her answer. The other Cutter had looked at her as though, no matter what she did, she could never be a real person to him, never anything more than a cheap replacement. She was never enough for him, not even enough to be a real person and not just an echo of his precious Claudia. But Nick… She wasn't just enough for him. She was more than that. With the way he was looking at her, she could almost believe that she could even become his entire world.

"I won't kill you if you do that again."


	23. Mistletoe

Disclaimer: No, not mine, sorry. Except for anyone unfamiliar, they're mine, actually, but I don't get paid for them.

A/N: Nicholas now. Oh, and this chapter contains mentions of femslash and threesomes; if you don't like, skip it.

_**Epilogue 3 – Mistletoe:**_ "We're all invited to Torchwood's annual Christmas party," Ashley announced one morning.

"Why?" Abby asked. "We're not Torchwood."

"We're an affiliate," Ashley explained.

"So I'm guessing you're trying to get us all to go," Claudia said.

"Only if you want. It's December 20th , if you do decide to go."

"Why not?" said Stephen. "It can't be worse than the faculty parties at the university."

Nick actually winced. "Can we not bring up that subject?"

"Why, what's so bad about it?" Connor wanted to know.

"One of the Russian history professors has spent the last two faculty parties stalking him," Stephen explained, smirking.

Connor snickered; Ashley and Abby hid smiles. Claudia frowned slightly, and Nick glared at Stephen. "You just _had_ to explain, didn't you?" he grumbled.

"You know, the faculty party's on the 20th," Stephen noted.

"I'll go to the Torchwood one then," Nick said quickly.

"Me too – the one at CMU will be dull without having to help you hide," Stephen teased.

"Sounds like fun," Abby said. Connor, who had been rendered speechless by his fight to hold in laughter, nodded before giving up and exploding into a highly unconvincing coughing fit.

"Well, if everyone else is going, why not?" Claudia said.

* * *

On the night of the 20th, the six of them headed to the hall rented for the party. They got there fairly early, and a lot of people weren't there yet.

Ashley kept up a running commentary as people came in, explaining who they were. She did not, however, say anything about one couple.

"Who are they?" Connor asked. Ashley scowled.

"Lisa Hallett and Danny Moran."

Lisa and Danny were followed almost immediately by a trio, two men and one woman. The woman came right through the door, but one of the two men – the one in a suit – stopped dead when he saw Lisa and Danny. The other man – wearing an RAF greatcoat – glanced at the couple and then looked up to see a sprig of mistletoe above his head.

"Oh no," muttered Ashley as the man in the greatcoat pulled his male companion into a searing kiss. The woman with them watched, seeming almost transfixed. Lisa's expression was half-disgusted, half angry.

When Sarah Jane hurried over to lecture the men, the woman headed for their table. "Hello, Ashley," she said.

"Hey, Gwen," Ashley replied before introducing the rest of the team. "Guys, this is Gwen Cooper."

"Nice to meet you," Gwen said. She glanced over her shoulder to where Sarah Jane was reading the riot act to the men. "I don't see what her problem is. They _were_ under the mistletoe."

"They got a little too into it," Ashley pointed out.

"That's Jack and Ianto for you. But they'll say they were just following the rule."

"What rule?" Nick asked with a frown. Gwen's jaw dropped and she stared at Ashley.

"You talked five people into coming to this thing without mentioning the mistletoe rule?"

"What mistletoe rule?" Claudia did not sound happy.

"Oh, the boys want me," Gwen said, beating a hasty retreat. Five suspicious pairs of eyes focused on Ashley.

"It's pretty simple, really," she said slowly, ready to bolt if necessary. "It's just, if you get caught under the mistletoe… You and the other person have to kiss on the lips. Not how they did, but…"

"And you… 'forgot' to mention this?" Nick asked dryly.

"Actually, yeah," Ashley said easily. "It's just a known thing, so I didn't even think about it." She was lying through her teeth, of course, but they didn't need to know that.

"That's got possibilities," Connor observed.

"Yeah, a lot of people use it as an excuse to finally make a move," Ashley agreed. "Or to play matchmaker."

"So best advice is to avoid getting caught?" Nick wanted to know.

"Unless there's someone you want to kiss, yeah." With that, Ashley went to go say hello to Jack and Ianto, both of whom were looking properly chastised.

* * *

There were certain constants when it came to Torchwood Christmas parties. Inevitably, someone got drunk – Chief Medical Officer George Bowles, in this case. Also inevitably, the mistletoe-inspired shenanigans led to various incidents. A few couples left rather quickly, apparently with plans to have breakfast. Others didn't end so well.

Rachel Todd slapped Tom Howard when he tried to pull her under the mistletoe. Will Carey and Mickey Smith got caught and shared what had to be the fastest kiss on record. Connor had managed to catch Abby and they both seemed to like it, but then Abby had literally walked into Stephen, pushing them both under the mistletoe. Hell, Stephen and Connor had nearly gotten caught, but managed to avoid it. Now none of them could look at each other.

Ashley had spent most of the night in a seat next to Sarah Jane, near the trio from Cardiff. Jack, of course, had a comment for every couple.

"Why don't your friends just opt for a threeway?" he asked, referring to the awkwardness between Stephen, Abby, and Connor. Ashley rolled her eyes.

"Stephen and Connor aren't bi, as far as I know," she informed him.

"Oh, you people and your – "

"Categories," Gwen and Ianto finished for him.

"What kind of categories?" The question came from Sarah Jane's son, Luke, who'd just come over with his friend Maria – their other friend, Clyde, hadn't been able to come.

"Never you mind," Sarah Jane said firmly, with a warning look at Jack.

"OK," said Luke, looking disappointed. Ashley smiled at the teens, a sudden idea popping into her head. It couldn't work… could it?

Well, why not? said the little voice in her head, the one that had inspired her pranks as a teen. It was high time she joined the ranks of Christmas matchmakers.

"Luke, Maria, can I talk to you?" she said, standing up. "I need your help with something." She led them off and explained what she wanted. Luke and Maria agreed to help at once. This probably constituted corruption of the young, but it was in a good cause, right?

* * *

Nick was beginning to regret coming to this thing. True, the mistletoe-inspired antics were entertaining, especially when Connor was involved. But otherwise, there wasn't much to recommend it. Even the chance to escape the attentions of CMU's Russian history professor wasn't enough, especially since he'd traded one problem for another.

He glanced over to where Claudia and Abby were talking to Ashley's friend Gwen, looking away again before any of them noticed.

"You know, you could ask her to dance," Stephen joked from behind him.

_Damn._ Maybe he could play dumb. "Who?"

The look his friend gave him said the attempt was useless. "Claudia."

"Why would I – " he tried, only to be cut off.

"Nice try, Nick. I've known you for years and I can read you like a book."

"Well, why don't you ask Abby for a dance? You wouldn't want Connor getting the better of you," Nick retorted.

"Maybe you have a point," Stephen agreed with a smirk before walking off. Nick rolled his eyes.

"Professor Cutter?" The speaker was a boy of about fourteen. What was he doing here?

"Yes?"

"I'm Luke Smith, Sarah Jane's son. Ashley was telling me that you hunt dinosaurs?"

Nick frowned. "I'm surprised she would have done that."

"Oh, don't worry," Luke said brightly. "I won't tell anyone. I'm going to work here when I'm old enough."

"Your mother told you about aliens?"

"Aliens made me, actually," Luke informed him matter-of-factly. "Then Mum found me and adopted me."

"Oh." It was all Nick could think to say.

"So what's it like? Seeing dinosaurs, I mean. I've read books and seen documentaries like _Walking With Dinosaurs_, but I'm sure it's not the same."

"No," Nick agreed. "It's not."

* * *

When Stephen claimed Abby for a dance, a young girl named Maria joined Gwen and Claudia. Apparently she was a friend of Sarah Jane's son. Claudia wasn't sure letting teenagers in on something like this was a good idea, but she decided it was none of her business.

Maria seemed quite intelligent, curious about both Torchwood Cardiff and the anomaly project. (Claudia would be talking to Ashley later; the anomaly project was her business and she didn't like the thought of teens knowing all about it.) Gwen, however, didn't seem at all bothered by the girl's knowledge, cheerfully launching into a story about things called Weevils.

Jack and Ianto came by as Gwen finished, and each of them grabbed one of her hands, leading her to the dance floor. Jack paused to wink at Maria, who blushed and grinned.

"Jack, stop teasing her!" Gwen scolded. Jack laughed and continued helping Ianto lead Gwen away.

"She's got them both whipped," Maria commented.

"Both? But – " And then Claudia realized what the observation implied and shut up. So those three were… together. That had to be interesting.

"Yeah," Maria was saying. "It's amusing, but it works for them. Or so Ashley and Sarah Jane say. You work for the Home Office, right?"

"Technically, yes, but I'm always at the London Hub these days."

"Oh right, the anomaly project. So what's it like, chasing after dinosaurs?"

"What exactly has Ashley told you?"

"It's OK, I'm used to it. I hear all about Torchwood. See, I'm always over at Sarah Jane's, and Ashley lives there, so it's hard not to hear things."

Claudia hadn't known that Ashley lived with the woman who was still her direct superior, but she said nothing. Instead she asked, "So are you going to join Torchwood after you leave school?"

"Probably. Or maybe I'll join DESI, the Americans' version of Torchwood. I'm not sure yet."

"Well, you're how old? Fourteen? You've got plenty of time yet."

Maria smiled. "I guess I do, yeah. Say, would you like to meet my friend Luke?"

"Why not?" Claudia responded, following the girl as she made her way through the crowd. After a few minutes, she saw a teenage boy who could only be Luke coming towards them, chatting animatedly with Nick. The two pairs met up and after quick introductions talked for a minute or two before they were interrupted.

"Luke, Maria, can you come here? I need you to tell me about what happened in Lab 24 last week," Ashley said, coming over to them. The teens winced, then nodded and moved to Ashley's side.

"I'll bring them right back," Ashley promised. Then her eyes flicked upwards. "Uh-oh…" she said with a wicked smile before leading the teens away. Nick and Claudia looked at each other, then looked up in tandem. Mistletoe.

"Um…" Claudia began, biting her lip. This was different than kissing him to get out of a bad situation, she thought wildly. It should have been more awkward then, but it was definitely worse now.

Nick didn't hesitate. He leaned forward and brushed his lips against hers, intending to keep it light, friendly even. But his best intentions evaporated the second their lips touched, and he pulled back only so he could bring his mouth crashing back down on hers, wrapping his arms around her at the same time. It only took her a second to respond just as strongly.

There were a few catcalls and whistles when they pulled apart, but neither of them cared. Nick shot Claudia a lopsided grin and tilted his head toward the exit, and she nodded. They left the hall hand-in-hand.

* * *

_Mission accomplished_, Ashley thought happily. Luke and Maria had left her almost immediately, considering she'd gotten the full Lab 24 story out of them last week. She still didn't understand how they'd managed to turn everyone on the Tower's ninth floor green, but she supposed the important thing was that it had been reversed.

Someone coughed behind her and she turned to see Sarah Jane. "You planned that, didn't you?" the Torchwood Director wanted to know.

"Yeah," Ashley said carelessly.

"And if it had backfired?"

"It didn't."

"Ashley…"

"I'm sorry."

"I don't want Luke playing those kinds of games."

"It was just a bit of fun. Come on, don't be so proper, it's Christmas." When Sarah Jane only raised an eyebrow, Ashley decided to resort to other methods of earning forgiveness. She leaned forward and kissed her boss – and lover – lightly on the lips. Pulling back, she smirked. "And I don't even need mistletoe. Forgive me now?"

"I'm reserving judgment. But you can reopen the case tonight."

"Oh, I'd love to."


	24. Housewarming

Disclaimer: I own what you don't recognize.

A/N: Series 1 universe now, though the ending's a little more open-ended. Oh, and there's hinted Stephen/Ryan, sorry if you don't like slash (not usually an issue in this fandom).

**_Epilogue 4 – Housewarming: _**"You know," Claudia said as she watched Connor stumble, one of her boxes in his hands, "I'm not sure enlisting the team's help in moving me to your place was the best idea."

"Relax," Nick said with a chuckle, wrapping his arm around her waist. "Everyone knows to keep him away from fragile objects, and the others aren't nearly so clumsy."

Claudia smiled, relaxing into his hold. "Maybe, but I'm entitled to worry a little."

"True, but we've got enough to worry about just now," he said with a frown. Last month, they'd learned that the Helen who died in the warehouse had been a clone. That meant that the real Helen was still out there somewhere. Claudia, guessing his thoughts, sighed.

"Let's not talk about that. You're right, and I'll try to relax."

* * *

She watched Stephen and Ryan carrying boxes out together, talking about something that, judging from the gleam in Ryan's eyes and Stephen's wicked smile, she didn't want to know about. The two men were usually pretty discreet at work, but clearly they felt more comfortable here. Abby was sitting on the curb, Claudia saw, teasing Connor for his clumsiness. As for Ashley…

"Love the shoe collection," Ashley joked from behind them. Claudia turned to face the younger woman.

"Do you have a problem with that?"

"Not really, I have an extensive jewelry collection."

Nick shook his head. "Typical," he said mock-sadly. "Women and collections."

"Excuse me?" said Ashley acidly.

"Says the man with a collection of old animal bones," Claudia snapped.

"Good Lord, I was only joking!" he said, holding up his hands.

"All right then," Claudia relented. "But watch those jokes of yours."

"Understood, ma'am," Nick quipped. Claudia rolled her eyes.

Ashley's mobile rang, and she stepped aside to answer it, but Claudia and Nick could still hear what she said.

"Stafford."

"…"

"What? I though you said it'd be at least a few more weeks."

"…"

"Oh, lovely. So I assume I'm to meet you there?"

"…"

"No, I already took care of that. Good thing I like to do things early, or we'd be screwed."

"…"

"All right, I'll head over." She hung up and gave the couple watching an apologetic smile.

"Is everything all right?" Nick asked, a slight frown creasing his brow.

"Yeah, I just have to go take care of something." But she looked a little tense.

"You look like something's wrong," Claudia observed.

"Not really," Ashley said lightly. "Just take my advice and try to avoid owing favors to American agents." Then with a careless wave of farewell, she was gone.

"That was odd," Nick said.

"Yeah, it – " Claudia broke off abruptly to call out, "I'll get that one, Connor!" She gave Nick an eloquent look.

"Abby said she'd watch him, it's not my fault!"

* * *

Ashley stopped by her flat on the way to the hospital, needing to grab the paperwork. She'd never set anyone up with a fake identity before, except for a few short-term undercover ops. But the theory had turned out to be essentially the same.

It could have been worse. Paula was a top-level DESI agent, and her favor could have wreaked havoc on Ashley's liaison position, a job that was already a juggling act between two occasionally conflicting loyalties. She just hoped that no one found out about the 'dead woman walking', because that would be one hell of a problem for all concerned.

A/N: So, Ripple Effect is finished, but our characters' adventures are not over, thanks to pesky favors and Helen apparently being the human version of a cockroach. To find out what happens next, check out my new fic Off the Grid, available in my profile.


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